At the Brink: A Kyle XY Journey
by Wermo
Summary: Ninety-two percent of the human population has died from a mysterious disease. There's mention of zombies, but they're not zombies. Kyle and Jessi fight for the continuity of the human race. I think it should remain rated T. Starts off dark, ends light.
1. Chapter 1: Tribute to a Dead Rival

Disclaimer: I do not own Kyle XY

Warning: This starts off a little dark, will be Kessi based, but end with hope (I hope!)

Jessi walked into the small house, a shack really, after having scouted the area for corpses. Smiles rarely seem to come to her face these days, until she was in Kyle's company. Her smile wasn't very big, and it was most certainly a wry grin if anything, but at least it was a smile. Kyle was writing in that rumpled leather bound book again.

She knew why he wrote at all; it was why she wouldn't interrupt him. It was a matter of survival. Even from across the room, watching him write in light from a large tri-wicked candle, she could tell exactly what words he was writing by examining the pen he held in his fist.

It would have been so much easier to type out his journal entries, but without power over much of North America, and quite possibly the world, that was no longer an option. Mechanical typewriters were also cumbersome to carry cross country and were pretty rare too.

With little effort, she read the regular movements of his pen and deciphered what he was writing. _We have reached southern Manitoba, a Canadian prairie province. Every spring the area we are currently in floods heavily and hence it is sparsely populated. We are in a little shack surrounded by many layers of sandbags that reach over twelve feet high. It doesn't look like anyone has lived here in months, maybe even years._

"I'd lean toward years," she said, finally interrupting him.

"Hi Jessi," Kyle said as he turned to her. He gave her his customary grin, a smile that lit his face and warmed her heart.

"So you _are_ writing a novel," she exclaimed as she walked toward him.

He turned to the worn book and frowned. "No I'm not," he said.

She didn't let him continue. "Then why do you have all the exposition, the descriptive first person narration?" She'd noticed it days ago and had wanted to tease him about it, but hadn't had the heart, until now. "The world is practically dead, all around us!" Even flies, she kept to herself gloomily.

He reacted the way she'd known he would. He flipped back a hundred pages and quickly flipped through dozens of pages. "You're right." He flipped to the beginning, and flipped through a dozen pages. "I didn't start that way; it must have just grown on me."

She touched his shoulder and sighed. There was no time for romance, no time for the electricity they'd once generated just by kissing. Not yet anyway; she could be patient. She was with him finally, not fighting for his attention or his company. They even slept next to each other, to keep each other warm and safe. It was late October and it was getting cold at night.

He noticed she was tense again. His lips pursed as he got up from the old wooden chair. "Take a seat for a minute." She didn't argue, only because it felt nice just to have him with her. She wasn't happy about the cost though. He brought his hands to her neck and gave her a light massage, but also a slight electrical current passed through his finger tips into her shoulder muscles. Involuntarily they tightened and loosened repeatedly. When he was done he only stopped the current but continued the old fashioned massage. He was quiet for twelve minutes and thirty-four seconds.

The significance of that time was not lost on her. She'd never liked Amanda but would never have wished her death either. The fact he'd been in a self-induced coma to fight off the disease, like she'd done, was little comfort. She knew that Amanda had watched over the both of them after her mother and their family had died. When a small gang of thugs had broken into the house to loot the place, they'd heard every scuffle, every shout, and every cry.

_Dammit Kyle_, she thought venomously, _now you made me remember it too._ A lump formed in her throat as she remembered the condition Amanda had been in when they'd awakened from their comas. At the first sign of trouble they had both done everything they could to get out of their comas, but it had taken more than twelve minutes to undo what had taken maybe two minutes worth of work. He'd found her first, torn and broken on the floor. She'd been alive long enough to smile at him – and her surprisingly – and say goodbye.

The cowards had broken her neck and only her strength of will had kept her alive.

When they had awakened, they had found blood splattered all over their clothes and on their skin. She'd sliced open two of her fingers to make it look like they were hemorrhaging, like all the others who were dead or dying at the time.

It had been a great plan; most other looters would have left at the first sign of the dying, but probably because she'd been there and in remarkable good health, they had fought for her and killed her before fleeing. The fact she'd continued to breathe for another four minutes until they woke did nothing to ease the pain in her heart.

She and Kyle owed Amanda their lives, their very existence. Humanity might yet live on, all because of her. She wanted Kyle to keep the journal, if only because it had an account of her sacrifice and of their plans for the future.

She swallowed, trying to banish the painful memories. The lump in her throat would clear eventually she knew.

He allowed her to get up – it always helped her to do some exercise to manage her stress, even if it was simply pacing back and forth on a few dusty planks of wood. He said, dread clear on his face. "So, what did you see out there?"

Through clenched teeth she muttered her response. Even if Kyle hadn't reminded her of the memory, simply recounting the news of her patrol would have. "Only a couple zombies terrorizing two women and a newborn."

To his credit – or maybe to hers – he didn't ask where they were because he knew they'd be dead. They weren't _real_ zombies of course, only spineless worm-like sub-humans who openly used violence and intimidation as the means of survival in the new post-disease world.

"Good job," he said, a grim smile on his face. He gave her a congratulatory kiss. "How many zombies were there?"

"Four." She couldn't help but smile grimly as well; she only liked the reward.

He gave her three more kisses. If he had found and disposed of them, she would have given him the same reward. It was probably a little obscene as a tribute to a dead rival, but simply remembering her didn't seem to be enough. Amanda certainly would have wanted them to be happy, to live, to restore humanity, or in fact make it better, reinvent it.

There was trash to take out; they would do it because it was necessary. Even with the approximately eight per cent of humanity left still roaming the Earth, at least two people had hope. They were headed north, and were nearly at their destination: the high security government lab. They knew where it was supposed to be because the internet's aerial maps showed everywhere but where it was. The ones for the CDC had been looted by crazed military types who were trying to consolidate their power, their own tyrannical regimes. She and Kyle hoped that the Canadian military wasn't quite as power hungry as their country's had been.

The dark ages had returned but they would fight it with every ounce of energy they had.


	2. Chapter 2: We, Zombies?

Kyle and Jessi travelled primarily at night because they could see perfectly well in moonlight. It was the main reason they rarely saw anyone but not the only one. They could also hear heartbeats of people nearby and they generally avoided the less pleasant sounds. It was true they could have handled or rescued a large number of people on their way here, but there would also have been countless followers to feed and clothe and defend. They could take care of themselves but no one else yet.

It was on their to-do list.

The first objective was to remain safe and together. Together they could handle just about anything. Only a large gun toting band of scavengers and looters, perhaps 50 or more, could really be a match for them. Those were the figures when they were out in the open, with little cover. If they were indoors in a defendable position, they felt they could handle 500 in relative ease. It would take planning and the interior would have to be designed properly to ensure they had the advantage, but it was reasonable.

Looking around, Kyle knew there were no groups anywhere near that large. The moon was bright, casting everything with a soft silver glow. If only they had time to enjoy the stars overhead too; their numbers had grown exponentially since power had failed across much of the continent two weeks ago. There were still a few lights here and there, and there was plenty of fire too – torches and braziers – depicting either a safe haven for people trying to survive together or those cretins banding together to drive humanity to extinction.

He and Jessi knew exactly how many of these cretins they'd killed. They named them zombies even though they were most certainly alive and in full capacity of their minds. Because they had lost hope they were worse than undead monsters; they were actual humans who took whatever they wanted only because they could. They completely ruined the areas where they lived and killed whoever opposed them, people like Amanda. Had she not been there and made it look like they were dying, he knew Jessi would likely have been at least raped and captured, and probably killed anyway.

These people, these zombies, had no right to even call themselves human. They were the worst kind of animal.

He couldn't suppress the tiniest growl from escaping his throat. Jessi turned to him in the dark and looked him in the eyes. She mouthed the words because it was very easy for them to read lips, and it was safer when traveling. "Thinking of zombies again?"

He smiled sheepishly at her, at the last person who mattered to him. Knowing and instantly regretting that he'd not said it in a little over six hours, he mouthed, "I love you Jessi." It made her smile from ear to ear, and she squeezed his hand. If they didn't need all their attention on their surroundings they might even have kissed, right there.

When a large number of lights suddenly came into view from behind a large building, they instantly flattened themselves to the ground. It seemed a little strange but it looked like an entire block of buildings still had power here, against all odds. The lights were muted behind dark paint but with their enhanced vision it had appeared a lot brighter. They relaxed when they neither saw nor heard anyone outside.

Jessi turned to him and mouthed, "Let's run." She pointed to the north-west. He agreed.

They ran at a comfortable pace, like they'd done for many hours down south when they'd tried to get to the CDC buildings in Atlanta. It had been foolish of him to believe they'd be unoccupied, but believe he had.

He knew that even the Canadian high security lab might be occupied, but this time they were prepared. He only hoped there weren't too many of them. He didn't relish killing, and he knew neither did Jessi. It was nonetheless a matter of survival and it was for that reason specifically that Jessi had convinced him to stock up on handguns and ammunition. Between them they carried eight guns, all with their safeties on, and at last count 394 bullets. Thinking briefly through the day's travel, 394 was still the number of bullets as they hadn't fired any.

He was thankful Canada had a much smaller population than the United States.

They could run fast like deer and as quiet as their footwear allowed. His shoes were starting to wear thin but Jessi's barely made a sound. Even so, there could be camouflaged hunters sitting out here with a rifle in hand, waiting for their next meal to come. The fact that 80% of wildlife had also died from the ravenous disease was a terrible blow to humanity's chances of survival.

_Even flies_, he thought soberly. They really had to hurry to get their plans started or everyone was likely to die.

Their only defence against snipers and hunters would be their heartbeats. As they ran they both catalogued the various sounds they heard and placed them on mental maps. If anything was suspicious they either ran faster or walked very slowly without any sound. They did this with very little conscious thought anymore, though at first it had been difficult for both of them. Constant practice made their technique perfect.

Thankfully they didn't encounter anyone outside on this night. While they primarily avoided the towns and cities they did occasionally have to raid them for fresh water and foodstuffs like canned beans. They often ate wild hare and edible leaves and grasses. Although they could drink straight from rivers, they found there were a lot of pollutants. Whenever it rained the runoff that got into streams and rivers made them deadly. They would survive but it would sap their strength rather than give any.

All the corpses weren't decomposing half as fast as they would have if only humans had been affected by the disease so they expected the conditions to remain for a few months at least. As dawn approached they found a new enemy: frost. It was forming fast, their breaths visible for only the second straight night. What Kyle liked least about frost was their passing would be clear to just about anyone, until the sun warmed it away.

Just then Jessi stopped and he took only one additional step, stopping almost as quickly. He turned to her, finally noticing why she'd stopped. He'd been so absorbed in his thoughts about frost and rivers and decaying corpses that he hadn't noticed that dawn was still three hours away. A forest fire was to their west, a big one. There currently was no wind but a forest fire would rage out of control for hundreds if not thousands of miles, consuming everything in its path, even the few survivors left in cities.

He exhaled noisily. They had enough trouble as it was; now they'd have to find a sufficiently large lake to hide in. They could handle a house fire for a few minutes but definitely not a forest fire. He looked around; all he saw were trees. They weren't packed too closely together so maybe a fire would advance here only slowly but the shrubbery, leaves, and moss at their feet would still burn just as readily. If the weather could cooperate and get really cold for a week or rain heavily for a few days, maybe some of the forest would be spared. There was nothing they could do against that.

Jessi turned to him and mouthed, "We have to angle back north east." Maybe the town they'd just avoided was only a village? They didn't know because they were now in the blacked out region in the maps they'd recorded just prior to the power failing. They had the majority of North America in their heads with the exception of primarily military installations.

Every now and then he really berated himself for not letting Jessi hack into the US government's intelligence files when they'd had the chance. It would have made this work a lot simpler. What if they'd already passed the place?

Jessi must have guessed what he was thinking, because she said in the smallest whisper, since he wasn't looking at her just then, "We haven't seen any fences or roads for a while now. Let's go this way; if we cross any roads we'll check them out."

He turned to her and nodded his approval. "What would I do without you Jessi," he asked. It wasn't the first time he'd asked her since the whole journey started. He probably would have become a vigilante, trying to protect the few from the gangs of rogues until he was overwhelmed.

She exhaled heavily. "I would have killed zombies till they finally got me." This was new to him; she'd never said anything previously and only held him when he had said the question.

He nodded; he could easily imagine her lasting somewhat longer than him alone. She wouldn't have hesitated to use any means necessary to protect herself while he would have. He shook the thoughts away; now wasn't the time anyway, not with a fire already visible in the west.

A picture suddenly came to mind, a picture of Jessi sporting a red bandana and wearing nothing but tattered black clothing, hefting a massive machine gun or a grenade launcher. Why, he asked, why had the last movie he'd watched been about one similarly clothed guy taking on an army complete with army helicopters and winning? He wanted to forget that movie, because it fit in too well with the mentality of the zombies.

The corner of his mouth rose in a smile despite his best efforts to extinguish it. Seeing Jessi in tattered clothes would be welcome though, as long as she was healthy of course.

Jessi tapped him on the shoulder, popping him back to reality. She saw his expression, smiled, and said, "What?"

He blushed in the dark but she saw him plain as day and her smile grew. He replied, "My hormones gave me an inappropriately timed image."

"Don't let it bother you Kyle. Mine have been doing that for almost two weeks." With that she started running. As he ran to catch up to her, he idly pondered her words. Well, maybe they were still young, but what if it was more than that? Some primal urge to mate when faced with extinction? They didn't have time for that!

He was biting his lower lip raw when they suddenly came to a clearing. A fifteen foot high barbed wire topped fence surrounded a small white building. There were signs every few feet declaring the fence was electrified. Tuning his ears up further, yes, it still was, even though the guard post was vacant on the north side of the clearing.

If this wasn't the lab, he wouldn't know what might be. It certainly fit his imagination. He hugged Jessi strongly but refrained from kissing her since they were out in the open. She tugged him back into the trees.

When they were safely hidden again, she mouthed to him, "It looks like it might survive a forest fire." He saw there was no grass anywhere in the clearing, only bare earth. Almost out of sight to the left of the building was a little shed with a bulldozer which was probably used to till the ground regularly to keep out plant life. There was also a large pipe to the right of the building; it looked like an exhaust system.

She glanced at his mouth and her breathing relaxed. Her heart on the other hand…

She said, "You wanted to kiss me earlier, here." The kiss was quick but to the point. She did it to simultaneously satisfy and frustrate their hormones. It was true their minds could render them completely emotionless and therefore prevent the attraction that was growing by the day. They both refused that course when they'd recovered from the disease. He pushed away the regret and anger that threatened to spoil his mood at the thought of Amanda. And yet it was necessary for them to keep their emotions because it made them human.

He kissed her right back, and told her of the image he'd seen. She nearly burst out laughing. She shared her image of him and it made him blush from head to toe. She had an active imagination.

If they lost their emotions, they'd be zombies too. The world would be doomed. That was always a sobering thought, which was another reason they kissed passionately for every zombie they killed.

"Do we go in," she asked.

With the fire very likely less than a day away, there was little choice. He would have liked to get organized here and then visit the hidden lights in the town nearby, maybe salvage and collaborate with them for survival, but it seemed nature had a different plan.

"Take off your safeties," he said.

She lifted her shirt only slightly, showing the Kevlar vest underneath. "I don't think it wise to take off my vest, do you?" She sighed when he looked at her. He knew she was joking, or more accurately teasing him now that she knew what he'd visualized of her.

He put his hand on her shoulder and said, "If you want to take those safeties off, we have to be in a secure location. What if I promise you'll be able to take them off tonight?

"Sounds good to me," she replied with a twinkle. "A shower would be good too."

He agreed. "A shower," _with you _he added with a thought, "would be heaven." He somehow thought she'd added the same in her statement because they were both smiling broadly and blushing.

_No_, he thought resolutely, _there's no chance we could relinquish our emotions, our feelings for each other. No chance._


	3. Chapter 3: Luxury of the Past

Jessi raised her arms as Kyle did and walked forward very slowly. In the darkness they couldn't see in quite the same detail as in daytime. She figured they could see like a cat, but perhaps not like an owl. All they were sure of was that no one was outside at the moment.

Step after careful step, neither said a word, but paid full attention to their surroundings. If someone inside was watching the security cameras – very small red lights showed where some were and that they were operational – they would see two figures walking in the middle of one of their monitors, in a peaceful manner.

If zombies made the lab their base of operations they were being uncharacteristically careful with its exterior. There didn't appear to be a single footprint in the dirt surrounding the lab, except for a few steps between the tractor and the lab's front door. They'd yet to see zombies behave like that so they had some hope. Still, that didn't mean any survivors inside the lab would welcome strangers into their midst.

Jessi withheld a sigh and took another step, perfectly matching Kyle's pace. They continued in perfect silence until they were only fifteen feet from the front door. She didn't dare speak them out loud so she settled for saying them in her head. "Is anybody home?"

Kyle looked at the foot prints as they crossed them and said in a whisper, "These are recent." She had come to the same conclusion. They spared a brief moment to glance at each other and both nodded.

They ran the remaining few feet and pushed themselves against the wall beside the heavy door. An elaborate keypad and thumb print scanner were beside the door. How they'd missed that detail scared her. Were they getting tired or sick again? Searching within she felt nothing wrong.

She noticed Kyle scanning the glow to the west. It wasn't growing yet but was already too close.

Jessi answered him, knowing that he'd come to the same conclusion. "We have to go in now or wait until the fire goes through the whole area."

Kyle added, "If no one is alive inside, we'd have to blast the door down."

"Shall I?" Jessi asked as she started punching numbers on the keypad. In 39 seconds she had the correct code and the door unlocked automatically.

Kyle smiled a now rare smile. "I guess they've disabled the scanner."

Jessi only returned a frown. "That likely means the people here are new tenants."

Kyle's smile died on his lips. Silently they pulled out two guns each. "Watch my back," he whispered, before he opened the foot thick steel door. She only registered the width of the door but didn't let any stray thought distract her.

She closed the heavy door behind her, returning them to near complete darkness. Only the occasional computer panel or emergency light offered any lighting. They found an empty elevator shaft and an open door to a long staircase. The door was even more solid than the door outside. It didn't seem to have any power to it so it stayed open.

They stood silently at the top of the stairs, listening intently: nothing.

Perhaps if they'd heard people or zombies they might have scaled the elevator shaft, but why waste the energy if it didn't seem necessary? They glanced at each other again and started down the flights of stairs.

After ten flights there was another door but this one was shut tight. On the other side was every sign of recent habitation by actual survivors, people who'd either never contracted the illness or who were immune. Kyle tried the door but found it locked solid.

Jessi whispered, "If we knock, it has to be loud enough for the people inside to hear it but be intricate enough for them to know we're not zombies."

Kyle looked down the stairs. In the dark he couldn't be sure he saw an end to the stairs. He whispered back, "We know there are people here; let's keep going a little further."

She finished his sentence, "Maybe they're holing themselves up from zombies."

Although Kyle didn't look comfortable holding handguns in both arms, he nonetheless used them as well as anyone – except her of course. She pushed the bravado aside and followed quietly. They continued down another ten flights of stairs before they found a surprising sight. A closet sized bathroom with one toilet stood open, inviting. Especially after doing their business in the forest or in bushes for days on end – they both refused to go in outhouses because of their enhanced senses – this seemingly clean bathroom was practically a delight.

They both stood still for several moments. Kyle glanced at her and mouthed, "You go first?"

"I'd love to!" she mouthed with enthusiasm.

When she stood the toilet flushed itself noisily. It had a sensor that told it when its occupant stood up – how had they missed that? The noise was practically deafening, and reverberated throughout the staircase, up and down. She hurriedly pulled up her pants and shrugged to him apologetically. Kyle on the other hand, had his hands to his ears, with his guns pointed away from his head.

If they both hadn't heard the extremely rapid heartbeats coming from far below them – a sure sign of zombies fast approaching – they might have both laughed at the whole thing. The zombies were still human, but had no decent traits left. They were hyper-aggressive, often tearing people's limbs or breaking necks. They didn't know if the zombies were created from a second stage of infection where the person got sick but didn't die. The adrenal glands were subsequently continuously stimulated, giving the zombies great strength, speed, and endurance. Any attack that didn't kill wouldn't slow it down either.

In any case, whoever they bit or scratched or ate never turned into a zombie. Their long discussions in the middle of the night when neither could sleep seemed to point to a form of immunity to the disease that most if not all survivors possessed.

They had not been immune to the original disease. They should have died but because they had been able to put each other into a coma where the body was then able to heat up to over 114 Fahrenheit in localised areas. It was something a normal body could not do. If they got scratched or bitten, would they become zombies? That was why they worked very hard to keep from finding out.

The loud banging and stomping and the various echoes produced by the approaching zombies made it difficult if not impossible to know exactly how many there were. It didn't seem too probable there would be more than three or four.

Kyle and Jessi stood side by side, arms outstretched, ready for them.

Time almost seemed to slow when the first former human came into view. It looked completely human, a woman in fact. She directed her gaze at Kyle and smiled. "Hey honey bun," she snarled as she crouched, ready to pounce.

Both Kyle and Jessi pulled one trigger at the same time and the bullet holes were less than an inch apart, both in her skull. Not surprisingly – because they'd both fought numerous zombies on the way here over the past weeks – the zombie still pounced but went straight up because of the head shots. The corpse hit the ceiling with a wet thud. It was flung aside by a burly man in a uniform. Jessi read the name tag: Henry.

Henry too got a hole in his head, this time by Kyle alone.

Henry was quickly pulled from view. Three more came running all at once; two were men and one a woman. The men held the woman by the arms and threw her forward in one fluid movement. Kyle let off one bullet, again in the head between the eyes but had to jump out of the way. Even Jessi had to hop to the side but shot the two men, who crumpled half way up the stairs.

The shots they'd taken reverberated up and down the stairwell, but didn't seem to be accompanied by any other noise. As the noise died down, they enhanced their hearing again, to discover if this was indeed the end of the battle or just a precursor to more blood. In the meantime they reloaded their guns.

Neither Kyle nor Jessi had ever seen the zombies working together to bring down their prey. They normally fought each other on the way to their kill, often injuring others of their kind. These had been different and maybe that was because they had been intelligent people in life?

Jessi pointed to the bathroom and said, no longer in a whisper, "Care to go now?"

Kyle, still breathing a little heavily, gave her a big smile. "Love to."

Jessi was about to say "I'll watch" when the door ten flights above them opened. They both heard normal sounding heartbeats and smiled to each other.

A woman's voice floated down the stairs. "Come up here quick you two; a whole horde of them have been spotted in the clearing outside. We'll keep the door open for fifteen seconds."

Kyle's hands had been on his belt buckle. With the news of more zombies and a potential safe haven though, their choice was instantly made. They raced up the stairs but made little noise in the process. When they got to the formerly secured door they found four guns pointed at them.

The woman motioned with her gun for them to turn around. They did, but only because they noticed their safeties were still on each of their guns.

"Good, you're clean," the woman said. The others pocketed their guns as they were welcomed inside. The door locked securely behind them as loud banging started up above.

Kyle, always the polite one, said, "Thanks for letting us in…" He extended his hand.

"Amanda," the raven haired woman said.

_Great_, thought Jessi, even though she forced a big smile to appear on her face. _Just when I got him all to myself._

"My name's Kyle, and this," he said, pointing at her, "is my wife Jessi."

Jessi's face brightened immeasurably at the word. "Thanks for letting us in," she said as she shook her hand.


	4. Chapter 4: Problems Galore

A/N: I sometimes feel like the dialogue is a little stiff. I find myself writing it over and over. If anyone reading this can point out the lines that work best and the lines that don't at all, please either pm or leave a review. Thanks!

Kyle counted the survivors in the room: four. He had hoped for at least a dozen.

As if reading his mind, Jessi squeezed his hand and whispered, "The hidden lights."

It was only wishful thinking because of the forest fire fast approaching up above. Likely a vast inferno would rage through the town in short order; the survivors who had hidden themselves there would have to flee soon or burn like the old oaks and pines in the forest all around them.

He sighed, feeling dejected.

Amanda, the leader of the group of survivors, eyed them curiously, clearly not having overheard Jessi or understood.

A thin black man behind Amanda was oblivious to his sadness. "Man, can you two shoot or what! I saw the whole thing on the security feed! All five shot in the head!" He laughed ecstatically.

Amanda saw Jessi's look of alarm and quickly added, "The security camera's in the stairwell and doesn't face the washroom."

A bald older gentleman but with piercing green eyes stood well back. "Where did you learn to shoot like that?"

Jessi, always quicker with the plausible lie than he ever would be, said, "We were Olympians before the world turned to hell." It didn't make a whole lot of sense to Kyle but it seemed to fit perfectly to the strangers because they all nodded emphatically.

A brown skinned lady, also thin of build, kept monitoring the security cameras in silence, shaking her head.

Jessi moved toward the bank of monitors, sixteen little cubes with grainy black and white pictures. She undoubtedly wanted to see what troubled the woman. He only wondered but didn't really want to know the number of zombies who were preparing to invade.

He turned serious and eyed Amanda. "The first thing you need to do is take off the safety on your guns."

Amanda frowned but the black man answered for her. "No need man, we don't have bullets."

The older man took a step forward. "How did you notice our safeties were on?"

Jessi gasped as her gaze flowed over the monitors. That drew all their attention, but his especially. Kyle said, "What's wrong Jessi?"

"They have a welding torch," she said, her mouth hanging open, "and golf clubs and axes and hammers." She wasn't through. "But some even have hard hats." Now he knew what had made her gasp. How to kill a zombie whose head was well protected?

Kyle turned fiercely to Amanda, "Has this group come here before?"

She gazed at her feet. "Most of those people used to work here. When they left us alone a week ago we thought we were safe. We started cleaning up outside and changed the security codes on all the panels;" she indicated the black man, "that's Joe's specialty."

Jessi interjected, "There were more of you then weren't there?" Kyle had had that same suspicion.

Amanda nodded solemnly. "There were twenty-six of us. But the five you just took care of wiped out almost all of us."

Jessi replied, her tone also solemn, "Without bullets you wouldn't stand a chance."

Kyle pressed on. He needed to know why these zombies were so keen on helping each other out. "How did they surprise you?"

The older gentleman spoke when Amanda nearly lost her composure. "My name's Ian, and her name's Maria." He pointed to the last unidentified survivor. "Everyone except Maria and I went up to the clearing to put together an electric fence and to clear all the shrubbery and grass because we knew a forest fire was likely to start soon. By the time they tilled most of land with the tractor, Henry the security guard popped out of the front door like he was on steroids. He ran faster than anyone – and he was pretty big too so it was not only surprising but very frightening. He mauled and killed three workers before the alarm was even activated."

To answer the unspoken question, Maria said, "I was in the washroom." She shuddered. "I never locked the door; he could have killed me right there."

Ian started anew. "I never locked this door either so we both were lucky Maria."

Amanda recovered sufficiently to add in her part. "I was lucky to be near the end of the pack with Joe." Joe nodded, looking ashamed. "Henry dragged down the people behind us and everyone in front got slaughtered by the four others who'd remained near the elevator."

Joe added, "I kicked Shirley in the head and stunned her."

Maria made a poor imitation, "Hello honey bun."

Amanda finished, "When we got here, Maria and Ian were already closing the door. We were lucky to live at all."

So they were with bright people who were otherwise totally incompetent at surviving with maybe the exception of Joe. He wanted to sigh but also didn't want to offend their hosts, not that they could really do anything to them if they couldn't get rid of a few zombies. He needed to know more from Jessi so he directed his question to her, "Jessi dear, how many are there?"

She smiled as he knew she would. "Well, Kyle dear," she said, laying on the dear rather thickly, "it's a little tough at this resolution to get a definitive count but I'd say close to 95."

"How many hard hats?"

"Only six." Only six zombies they'd have to tackle hand to hand. It wasn't something he really wanted to do.

Ian was suspicious again, but this time of Jessi. "May I ask you Jessi how you determined that number in such a short period?"

Maria interjected, "That's a better headcount than I could come up with and I've been looking at them since they first appeared."

Jessi had always been a pretty quick talker, but sometimes she was a little too quick. She barely allowed Maria to finish her sentence before answering. "It's one of those things sharpshooters do. Count the marks quickly so you can see if you have enough bullets to get them all."

Amanda turned to Kyle with a look of concern. Her question was readily apparent. "We have enough bullets, but not enough space if they all come down here at once." He turned to Maria. "Did they follow us?"

"No, they came from the road to the north."

At least they weren't to blame, but then these people used to work here and would know the area better than them. Jessi asked the question that had just popped into his head. "How many people used to work here before the disease struck?"

Amanda was quick to respond. "420 give or take the occasional group of temp workers."

Jessi quickly followed up with the same question he had, "Didn't a lot of people get sick and die first?"

Amanda nodded sharply. "Yes, at least 10%, maybe even 15%."

Jessi turned to him with her eyes open wide. He said to the group, "In Seattle, where we came from, the initial disease killed 92% of all people and animals and seemingly even some plants."

The zombies they'd killed on their way here had always been the same. If you didn't shoot it in the head, it kept coming at you. Therefore, they always shot them in the head. It was a simple fix for them.

What if the zombies here were a little more human than the ones they'd faced previously? He walked to Jessi and held her hand. He said to the others, "Please give us a moment, we have to discuss something."

Jessi knew what he was going to do and never bothered to open her mouth. The room around them dissolved and became the Trager home. They were inside their mutual memory of the place. Time here flowed much more slowly than in reality. For every five minutes they spent here, about a second passed in reality so it was useful when not in immediate danger but when they needed time to think things through. If done too often or for too long, it could weaken them though.

He didn't release her, and she held him in return. Jessi said quickly, "Do you think it mutated?"

"Or could it be an entirely different disease?"

Jessi darkened. "Could there be others, _worse ones_?"

Kyle added another possibility. "Might the original disease get here eventually and wipe the rest of these people out?"

Jessi said, "We'll have to check their lab work on the disease they had and see if it's the same as ours." They remembered well what it looked like; it had been about a tenth of a millimetre and quite visible to the naked eye.

Kyle frowned. "That'll have to wait until after we take care of the zombies." He looked into her deep hazel eyes. He didn't really have any doubt after having disposed of five of them already today. "We're still agreed the people outside are zombies?"

"And have to be killed? Absolutely." She kissed him quickly, lingering for less than a second. It was unfortunate but kissing inside their memories didn't provide even a quarter of the normal sensations – and none of the electricity – so they didn't typically indulge there, despite being much safer.

Kyle nodded and said, "It would be best to destroy their welding tools and let the forest fire kill them. Any ideas?"

"Short of opening the door and having them swarm us en masse?" She pondered for several seconds. "There's the air intake and air outflow vents but they're grilled with heavy metal bars."

"And if we turned them off they'd surely notice the lack of sound." Kyle added.

"We'd have to turn them off to get past the fans." She paused a moment. "And if they came down and all died there they'd clog up our vents and then we'd have to leave."

Kyle growled in frustration. The problem with a high security lab such as this was that you were generally forced to go in and out in a very limited number of ways and if the air, water or power were cut off they would be death traps. They weren't meant to survive in for the long term but they needed it to be for the very long term. The survival of all humanity might depend on it, especially with diseases possibly already mutating, or worse, more than one disease spreading through the world.

If that door was opened with their welding tools, the zombies would overwhelm them.

"What about the elevator shaft?" Jessi suddenly said.

"How deep is it? Where's the actual elevator?"

Jessi shook her head. "No, could we not jump to the top of the shaft in a hasty retreat and pick them off as they chase us?"

"That's probably not going to be very high, maybe ten or fifteen feet."

Jessi's eyes were downcast. "They could surely try jumping up after us too."

"Though we would get the head shots in first and they'd have to file their way in. But we'd still have to beat them down or risk getting hit by a dead zombie on the way up."

"Or aside! One takes all the shots, the other pushes the rising zombies into the wall of the shaft."

"That might work. That's great Jessi!" With that he gave her a solid kiss. Despite the lack of sensation in their memory, he wrapped his arms completely around her and squeezed her tightly. She moaned lightly in her throat and started to melt against him when they mutually separated.

"I'd love to continue this in the flesh my _dear husband_," Jessi said sweetly.

"I love you Jessi." He felt his brow bunching a little from the stress of the upcoming battle. "I didn't want there to be any doubt with them that we are together."

She smiled again. "It worked with me." She gave him another quick squeeze. "We better get going."

He nodded and their surroundings once more changed and became the little prison they'd chosen as home. It was nice to see the others again though. He turned to Amanda, who seemed surprised they hadn't spoken audibly. That would have to wait for another day. "We have to hurry, but Jessi found a way to keep the front door intact and still take care of all of them."

All four scientists stared at them curiously, for good reason.

"You won't need to come with us either," Jessi added.

Kyle finished her sentence. "We do need to know where the elevator is and whether it's a problem if we clog up the elevator shaft with nearly a hundred corpses."

Jessi said, "I'd also cover up the corpses with several feet of dirt to help keep the smell and decay to a minimum."

"Good idea dear," said Kyle. He beamed at the scientists, inwardly hoping they wouldn't question how they'd come up with the idea so quickly. Jessi smiled too.

Amanda replied quickly, sensing the urgency. "If we lose the elevator, we'll lose the bottom ten floors of the lab, but that's not too big a deal."

Kyle asked, "How many floors are there in total?"

Amanda replied, "Eighty."

Ian muttered, "I thought there were only seventy-five?"

Amanda countered, "There's an extra five you need special clearance for, not that any of us have that."

Jessi interrupted them pointing at the security monitors, "Um, the z–" she stopped herself from using the word zombies, "They're going crazy up there."

Maria concurred, "Jack Horner and Jill Thompson have rounded up a group around them and they're headed to the tractor."

Jessi whispered, which was audible to Kyle and made him smile, "Jack and Jill?"

He whispered back, "Went up the hill."

She said, smiling, "To fetch themselves a tractor."

He whispered a little bit louder, facing her directly, "Jack fell down from a bullet in his head."

"And Jill came even deader!" Jessi finished it with a loud giggle.

Joe said, shaking his head, "You guys sure you're alright?"

Kyle shrugged. "It's been a long month."

Several zombies were swarming over the tractor, hanging from every available hand hold while others congregated near the front door. It didn't seem like the two factions were going to fight though; it only seemed like they were arguing about the best method of getting in.

The blow torch would take some time to get through the thick door and there was no guarantee the tractor could break into it but it certainly could jam them inside just as easily.

Jessi suddenly exclaimed and pointed at one of the monitors. "Hey, I just saw that one say: _The fire is almost here; we have to hurry!_"

Maria and Ian both looked at Jessi curiously but kept their mouths shut this time. They all watched as another large group of zombies came running into the clearing from the west. They snarled and hopped, barely human things. The educated zombies swarming the tractor raced to them as one and neatly started trashing the newcomers. As one they were much more deadly than the average zombie.

With their axes and hammers and their cooperation, the new group fled with severe casualties.

Kyle smiled wryly. "That's six gone. Next."

Amanda balled her fists at her sides and yelled, surprising him, "Those people used to be our friends! How dare you talk of them like animals!"

Jessi replied while Kyle stood with his mouth open. "We don't consider them animals; they're zombies." She nodded, "Very big difference."

Kyle recovered from the shock of this stranger, Amanda, yelling at him in anger. It brought nasty memories to the fringe of his memory, of a time when love was basically a triangle and he couldn't decide whether he preferred sine or cosine because they were essentially the same, even if they were different. He pushed the errant thought away, "Didn't you just tell us they killed twenty-two of you a few minutes ago? They're not people, they're murderers!" He lowered his voice, "Semantics aside, my wife and I call them zombies. They're certainly alive but have no regard for life. For that reason alone we figure they're as good as dead."

Jessi finished his recap. "And if they're dead, they're zombies."

Joe clapped, "I like that thought process! It's elegant and to the point."

He soon withered under Amanda's glare. She turned back to Kyle and Jessi. "Ian told me last week the elevator was disabled at the 75th floor. I would think it's actually below that. There might be more survivors in the top secret area but there's no way to get there anyway. We'd be condemning anyone there to death if we blocked the shaft with corpses." She sighed, and clasped her hands in front of her. "Of they haven't emerged in a month's time though, I'd say it's an acceptable risk. Not sure how you're planning to get them to jump into the shaft though."

Jessi stared at the monitors and interrupted what Kyle had just been about to say. "Kyle?"

"Yes Jessi?"

"They've hotwired the tractor. We have to get up there now." She started walking to the door to the stairs. To Amanda she said, "Are you sure there are no more _people_ still downstairs, like Henry?"

She shook her head. "We don't think so but we're not sure."

Kyle said to the survivors, "Lock this door behind us. When we get to the top of the elevator shaft, feel free to open the front door remotely Joe."

Joe said in disbelief, "That's your plan?"

"We'll encourage them to follow us, and get rid of the blow torch in the process." Kyle opened the door while Jessi stood next to him, checking her guns.

Jessi expressly stated. "Unless you see us waving our hands and saying _No_, your job is to count the number of z – _people_ that don't follow us and to tap gently on this door right here that number."

Kyle smiled to Jessi, "Good thinking."

Amanda shook her head, frowning. "It sounds crazy, but do it." Then she looked at them both. "Good luck out there, and when you come back, feel free to call them zombies as much as you like."

Ian finished, "They'll be already dead by then."

They nodded grimly and ran up the stairs, two steps at a time. As their footfalls were nearly soundless, they clearly heard the thick door close and lock behind them. In moments they got to the top of the stairs and easily saw the open elevator shaft. There really wasn't much room from the elevator shaft to the first bend in the hall to the front door. It was only twelve feet or so. They both clearly remembered how many turns there were in those few feet after the door – there were six – and none of it really lent well to a defensive position where they could snipe a few, backtrack, snipe a few more, back up again until finally they had to jump into the top of the shaft.

It reminded him to look at the top of the shaft. Satisfied that it was indeed about twelve feet, he held Jessi's hand and squeezed. "You want to do the shooting or the shoving?"

"I prefer the shooting, but I know I'm better than you at shoving." She smiled coyly.

"But you're only slightly better than me at shooting; you think you should do the shoving?" She batted her eyelashes at him for a few seconds as they heard the front door open automatically with a hiss. The tractor halted almost immediately. He said, "Okay, you do the shoving unless you see most of them dropping right in and you can pop a few too. The reward's the same." It was his turn to smile coyly.

They overheard barely human grunting and questioning. Then a few loud yells of "Fire! Fire!" seemed to get some of the zombies running inside to safety.

"Time to bury the dead my dear," he said with affection.

"To think I forgot my shovel at home," she said. She popped the first zombie that appeared, straight in the head. "Thank goodness I have guns."

He popped the next two, which brought loud cries and the slowing of the remaining zombies until they crowded the opening. There were shouts which they clearly understood, like, "What's the hold up?" and "Who's holding up the line?"

They were very human things to ask when you were in a hurry. Kyle almost started to question his resolve until he heard a reply from one of the zombies.

"Just worms with guns at the elevator." The voice was clearly female but full of phlegm, or with tons of drool that continuously dripped down her face. Kyle wasn't completely sure.

"How many?" asked the commanding voice who was still outside by the sound of the echo.

"Don't know." Drooly girl was a zombie of many words.

"Push someone!" That sounded like a zombie, and hardened Kyle's resolve.

Jessi popped the one who stumbled out from behind the corner.

"So?" the commander questioned.

"Still don't know," Drooly said.

"Push another!" Another zombie-like thing to do; it made Jessi smile. It was much easier to kill things that had no regard for life. Otherwise they would have been totally guilt ridden by now.

The next one didn't even get a step out before it went down.

"Now?" the commander asked, somewhat impatient.

"They're good Drew. Still don't know." Kyle gripped his guns tightly. The fact they had names made it somewhat harder to kill them without remorse. The fact they were more than willing to rip them to shreds if they got to them was the driving force behind their resolve. It was kill or be killed; it certainly wasn't a way to live, but perhaps it was a way to survive. By calling them zombies it helped, but when they started behaving rationally, didn't they have to question whether they could recover? Was it in fact a permanent transformation?

A large growl and a yell followed, "Flush them down the hole!" Thankfully they never asked for a parlay or a truce or something of that nature, which certainly showed reluctance to behave like a true human. As the zombies pushed each other to get at them, Kyle and Jessi popped one after the other with both hands firing independently. The first few crumpled behind the wave, causing the ones directly behind them to fall and be trampled, tripping some of the ones following them.

He counted those he felled. He knew Jessi counted hers. If the situation didn't require his full concentration, he would have smiled for her. She was better than him at both shooting and pushing, but not by much. Before long he saw two hard hats and knew they had to retreat.

They stood at the lip of the deep chasm that was the elevator shaft.

Through gritted teeth, Jessi said, "You first."

There was no time for insisting she go first. He crouched and jumped into the far corner of the shaft. With his legs he found the rungs he'd located when he looked before. He concentrated the molecules in his feet to adhere to concrete, not quite sure it would work as he'd never tried to do that before.

Jessi followed a second later, right beside him. She hooked an arm on a rung she found available and pressed against him. "You're up," she said.

The river of dead zombies flowed into the hole below them. When he saw the first one glancing up the shaft he popped it in the head too. As that zombie was pushed overboard, the next three tried to stop the force behind them, but unsuccessfully. They didn't yell as they fell though.

A few more came into view and tried to jump up. He and Jessi each got one and she pushed them both hard to the side, smashing them into the concrete wall a few feet below them.

"Please don't tire yourself out," he said through clenched teeth.

"And leave you alone? Never."

There was a brief reprieve when the zombies halted just out of view. Probably for fun, or maybe because from her angle she'd had a glimpse of a shot, Jessi leaned down and squeezed out a shot. It hit one of the hard hat wearers in the nose. Blood sprayed everywhere, a by-product of the zombie's hyper elevated heart beat. The zombie wasn't dead yet, but would be soon enough. It was held like a shield by two zombies behind it.

A large growl came from the zombie named Drew. "Where are the blood suckers?"

Of course he'd personally shot the woman he'd called Drooly so he knew not to expect her to reply. And yet oddly, another phlegm-filled female voice answered, but this one was just a tad deeper than Drooly. She seemed to gulp and choke quite often as she spoke though, so it was quite gross to hear her _talk_.

"They jumped up the elevator shaft." She was interrupted several times by loud crashes far below. The elevator car had been struck by the first zombies. The crashing continued for several seconds.

"One thousand three hundred twenty feet, give or take a foot," Jessi mumbled distractedly.

He almost smiled because he'd done the same calculation. He didn't trust anyone anymore, except for Jessi of course. Although that distance didn't mean there were specifically a certain number of floors, the law of averages could be used to estimate the number of floors in a building of this nature. The problem of course was they'd never been in a structure quite like this one, a building that grew down into the ground as opposed to up. They might be built differently.

Loud growls were heard far below. He and Jessi sighed almost as one. Whoever had survived down there was long dead or hidden in a storage locker, waiting to die. He only hoped they were already dead.

Drew yelled, "How many?"

"Two, I think," Phlegmy replied. Jessi took the opportunity to reload her guns and he slowly did the same, in case the zombies suddenly came out of hiding. Surprisingly Drew didn't yell or even reply and yet he didn't disappoint. A zombie, one with a hard hat, flew into the shaft only to hit with a sick crunching noise on the wall opposite.

"Five left," whispered Kyle, even though he knew Jessi was also keeping track of the hard hats.

"You," Drew said loudly. There was no sign of protest or scuffle but soon enough a zombie was thrown up the shaft by two strong arms. Jessi flung the zombie to the side, only to see another, and then another. Soon, twelve zombies had been flung effortlessly up the shaft and should have had them by rights and the laws of nature, but with their skills and abilities Jessi and Kyle had survived.

But Jessi was just a tiny bit winded; Kyle could tell.

An already dead zombie was put head first into view, but Kyle stayed his finger just in time. Drew muttered, "Good," and then threw the corpse down the shaft himself and watched it go down. He was wearing a hard hat too, and what seemed to be a Kevlar vest.

He waited for the perfect time to squeeze the trigger. It came when the hard hat seemingly threw itself at the wall. Kyle popped Drew twice in the brain, for good measure.

Several growls and moans emanated from the hallway, but none came closer. Jessi swayed for just a moment and nearly lost her grip. Kyle found he was practically glued to the wall by his legs – even though they complained about it – and kept her steady with one hand. "You went a bit overboard there dear."

"I really like it when you call me that," she said between labored breaths. She got her balance back and was in good position again in little time. She suddenly murmured, "I should shoot for a while." Even though it could be misconstrued as weakness, Kyle knew it was only her survival instinct. She knew her limits and wasn't willing to die only because of pride.

"That's good with me," he whispered back as he holstered one of his guns.

The zombies started growling and cheering. The guttural noises were disturbing. Bright flickering lights started to light the opening of the shaft.

"Fire?" Kyle whispered in disbelief. Would they kill themselves to kill them?

The light intensified as clothing caught on fire. There were no sounds of scuffling, only the growling and cheering. Without Drew commanding them, the remaining zombies still held together, seemingly united in purpose. It was scary beyond imagining.

Jessi shot the burning corpse as it was hefted up toward them, followed by others. Kyle dropped the gun in his right hand as he concentrated with all his will to fling the corpses aside. Eight had made their ascent and none had even come close to touching them. He swallowed hard from the effort though.

Jessi whispered, "Great job."

"Thanks," he said. She was quite a bit better than him at moving objects with her mind. He needed her to teach him. "Teach me to do it better sometime though, okay? I'm finding it a workout."

Axes, hammers, sticks, and stones started flowing up the shaft and together they deflected them all. Jessi suddenly shouted in pain.

Kyle was instantly covered in cold sweat – he thought he'd somehow missed something and it had hit Jessi but she calmly deflected the few remaining items. In the barest whisper, she said, "You too."

He couldn't help but smile. He grunted loudly in time with an axe striking the concrete wall.

The items ceased coming and they overheard the front door closing and locking. Whether it was done automatically they couldn't be sure. It made sense they would close the door when they saw the zombies bringing things from outside to get them out of their perch.

A very deep raspy voice said, while also sounding like he was speaking with juice in his mouth or in his lungs, "See them fall?"

Most said no but a few said yes. After a minute of arguing and some loud banging as a few of the zombies tore at each other, it became quiet again, but only for a moment. Three corpses were dumped down the shaft. Jessi didn't fire, trying to keep up the ruse. What had once been loud crashing at the bottom of the shaft was only muffled sound as corpses piled up. Because some had been on fire on the way down though, the pile far below was trying to catch on fire. It was succeeding in places but failed in others. If an inferno raged down there it could conceivably rob them of oxygen and totally destroy the structural integrity of the entire complex.

The deep voice said again, "Bring torch, we go to the bottom."

A shrill voice, almost completely human, said, "And Amanda? Do we kill her now or later?"

"Weld the door they hide behind shut." He chuckled wetly. "Food for later." Several grunts and seemingly happy shouts echoed through the halls as the group hurried as one at their task.

When the echoes died sufficiently, they noticed they could still hearing pounding and figured there were a few more zombies pounding at the door, trying the flee the fire around them. One could only hope anyway. There was no way they'd find out if they were really zombies or not.

They nodded to each other and slowly crept down toward the opening. They almost expected a zombie or two to be lying in wait. They each only held one gun during the descent as they needed more agility to get down the vertical walls. Thankfully there was a ladder embedded into the concrete beside the door.

Kyle noticed Jessi glancing at the fire starting far below and being as worried as he was. Without going outside and getting piles of dirt, how would they stop a fire that far down? There was nothing they could do right now, so he filed it away.

Jessi had her gun pointed and ready. After a hard swallow he jumped out of the shaft in one fluid movement, two guns again in his fists, but this time one of his spares that had been attached to his leg. Looking around and deeming it safe, he motioned for her to join him.

She landed as graceful as a cat. Hoots and catcalls amidst growls and loud banging could be heard far below. There was also the unmistakable sound of running water cascading down steps.

Kyle and Jessi turned to each other with tears in their eyes. They comforted each other and Jessi said to him, "The poor defenceless toilet."

"I'll never get to use her services," he bemoaned.

"_Her_ services?" Jessi asked with a playful slap on his shoulder. "Revenge of the toilet!" she suddenly shouted, and fired a bullet wildly down the stairs. The bullet bounced at least once as they heard it ricochet. He shook his head and grinned.

The zombies far below them were suddenly very quiet.

There were still a few too many heartbeats to count. It would be messy, especially with four hard hats left.

"Round two," he said.

"Winner take all," she finished with a grim smile.

A strange meaty smoke emerged from the elevator shaft. It was safe to say the fire had started in earnest down in the shaft. It certainly wouldn't have been pleasant had they been stuck there for much longer. A smoke alarm suddenly started ringing, deafening to their enhanced ears. They both found themselves on their knees until the noise became a dull ache inside their ears.

He stared at Jessi in confusion, and saw blood in her ears. She saw the same in his. They were both deaf!

They could surely heal themselves but had already exerted themselves so much already. What if the zombies rushed them now? Having had the last movie he had watched be about that one man army – something in the back of his mind seemed to show him a picture of a male goat – he dipped a spare finger into each ear and smeared the blood under his eyes. Jessi seemed to like the look, and imitated him. They turned to the stairs and had their guns ready.

They would need to keep careful count of their ammo and reload whenever possible. In fact, he reloaded one of his guns now, and found Jessi was doing the same.

She was his soul mate. How had he ever doubted it? As water started pouring from the ceiling, he gave her a bright smile. She returned it without hesitation. They held their gaze for the smallest moment before they returned to the ready.

It wouldn't be long now; of that, they were both sure.


	5. Chapter 5: Persistence

Jessi's ears rang and hurt pretty badly; the fire alarm had caught them both off guard. She no longer had enhanced hearing as a result, and could only hear the growls and loud steps as the zombies started their way back up the stairs.

She didn't know exactly how many were left and without hearing heartbeats, she'd have to be extra diligent with her hand eye coordination. One reason they'd been able to strike so quickly and accurately every time had been being able to _see_ the heartbeats as an image superimposed on what their eyes saw.

She muttered to Kyle, who looked funny with thick streaks of blood under his eyes, "I think there are 37 left." She figured she'd humor him and do the same with the little blood coming from her ears. She found the idea a little gross to be honest.

As the water poured down on them from the overhead sprinklers, she saw him turn to her with a brief bright smile which she hastily returned but he didn't say a word. She noticed the much larger amount of blood that had poured from his ears and was instantly stricken with concern.

When he turned back to the stairs, both guns at the ready, she did the same. She opened her mouth ever so slightly but moaned loudly, a bit like a zombie. She kept an eye on Kyle for a reaction and saw none, confirming her suspicion.

The banging at the front door continued and she even felt the low rumble of the tractor again coming from outside. She shook her head slightly at their terrible predicament. They first had to take care of the zombies who were rapidly coming up the stairs, but as soon as possible, she'd fix one of Kyle's ears whether he protested or not.

Without his hearing he was practically a normal human and of little use.

The first zombie turned the corner running. She squeezed the trigger and it went down in a heap. Less than half a second later Kyle shot it in the eye.

_Okay, so maybe he's not completely useless without his hearing_, Jessi thought with a smile. She didn't have time to waste in trying to communicate with him because other zombies came rushing up the stairs. Two hard hats turned the corner as one. Almost instantly bullet holes appeared just below the lip of the hard hats, into their foreheads. One went down but the other only staggered and shook its head. After bringing its hard hat lower on its head, it snarled and came running.

Three more zombies were behind the hard hat zombie. Kyle stretched out his right hand and threw hard hat into two of the three behind him while she kept firing at the targets behind it. They landed in a heap and were trampled by several who followed. She knew they wouldn't be dead yet.

Jessi popped the zombies as they came up the stairs, Kyle seemingly having decided he would be more useful simply preventing their approach.

Her guns had 15 bullets each when she started; she only hoped Kyle had the same head count left, unless of course she grabbed her spare guns which had six bullets each.

That should be sufficient. A grim smile appeared on her face.

Twelve, fourteen, sixteen, seventeen. Right, left, right: twenty.

Zombies now had to climb or jump over the dead corpses, effectively slowing down most of them. They were mostly unarmed now too, which also helped because they wouldn't be throwing their weapons ahead of them. The occasional weapon typically seemed to move of its own accord, planting itself into the neck or body of the zombie holding it. Although certainly not causing significant damage, it often distracted them for a second, allowing her a clear shot.

She certainly enjoyed working with Kyle. It would certainly be a little better if the world hadn't fallen to this but when zombies tried to rip you to pieces, you either quickly found you could kill them or you just didn't last.

There was a lull in the zombie killing spree at twenty-four. A damaged axe came into view and was buried into a corpse and dragged away, then another. When the axe wielding zombie popped his head just a little from behind the wall, she wasn't surprised to see it was another hard hat. Besides, by her count there were only thirteen left.

She heard a large crash as the tractor was driven into the heavy steel door to their left. The regular pounding ceased and was replaced by a loud screeching noise as the operator tried to scratch the door open.

Jessi only hoped they didn't damage the door too badly or they might be stuck here, without a toilet. On second thought, there had to be at least one other functioning toilet in such a large facility?

Kyle stretched both hands out, ready with his guns. She did the same, but kept an ear out for the door. If it broke and a bunch of zombies came from the left, they'd likely be forced down the stairs. It all depended on which side had fewer zombies. The elevator shaft was a write-off now. The smoke was thick and black and smelled an awful lot like a cross between rotten eggs and bacon.

Because the zombies were still trying to grab corpses from the bottom of the stairs and weren't advancing, Jessi put her left hand to Kyle's right ear and concentrated.

He sighed but didn't bother struggling. She felt his displeasure like a brick in her gut though, and it bothered her.

When the zombies started growling and grunting she stopped the healing.

Kyle said, "Thanks," and paused. "I still can't hear," he said dejectedly.

She felt a trickle of blood coming down her right nostril. Even though she'd only tried for a few moments, she knew Kyle's ears were in really bad shape. It didn't surprise her that she'd been unable to do it in that short a time. Nevertheless she was angry with herself for wasting her energy on something that probably should have waited.

She saw Kyle turn at the sound of a loud crash coming from the front door.

"You heard that?" she asked, before realizing she'd not only heard it but felt it too. Whoever or whatever was out there was growing pretty desperate. She had to assume the door would have been opened by the other survivors if they'd been friendly. Unless –

The thought was cut off as she heard creaking metal and a loud sound of air rushing out of the lab. Kyle interrupted her observations, "Front door's been breached." Of course, he knew that from the change in air pressure.

The zombies at the foot of the stairs chose that moment to strike. The three at the front held limbless, headless zombies in front of them, like actual meat shields. They held them up high too, in front of their faces. The sight made her grimace. Kyle swept their feet with a wave of his hand, making all three fall down, exposing their heads to Jessi, who promptly popped them dead. She saw Kyle waver on his feet; she wasn't the only one who was over exerting themselves today.

The three behind them tried to grab the shields from the fallen but only one succeeded. Jessi took a few shots into the bloody mess held up high only to be rewarded with more blood and gore spraying everywhere. Somehow blood was still pumping or just hadn't completely stopped flowing yet. Kyle shot the zombie's knee with four bullets. It stumbled only a few steps away from them and hurled the mutilated torso at them before getting a bullet in its head.

The body missed them both, going directly between them before smacking wetly against the wall behind them.

A spit filled growl came from the front door, more of a gurgle really. Kyle quickly turned to the hallway at the same time she noticed the flickering light. Knowing her one gun was empty, Jessi jumped six feet in the air and took hold of a cold water pipe attached to the sprinkler system. The zombies who appeared next at the foot of the stairs included the last two hard hats. Kyle had moved up the hallway when the body had been thrown at them so it might have looked like they'd been finally stopped with the exception of her giddily shooting the two hatless zombies dead. The two hard hats looked up and saw her. She had only three bullets left in the gun in her free hand. She could easily reach one of her spare guns if needed.

After a loud belch of pus and phlegm, the female zombie asked, "How you get up there?" Some of the pus kept hanging from her mouth.

Jessi's stomach had had enough and she tried to vomit, but thankfully nothing came up. Kyle shot three fiery zombies in the head before he turned back to her. She looked at him and saw a head poke out from behind the corner. With her stomach roiling, she took the shot and hit its shoulder. Kyle turned and crouched before he shot the approaching zombie. It continued to run even with a bullet in its head. Its legs continued to pump erratically, causing it to stumble slightly at first, then more and more until it was nearly horizontal. Thankfully it was already lifeless from the head shot but it nonetheless ran past Kyle and ran headlong into the elevator shaft.

Seeing another opportunity the two hard hat zombies climbed over their fallen to get to Kyle. Jessi squeezed off her three remaining bullets and tried to remove the hard hats beforehand but found resistance, much to her disdain. Kyle turned almost at the last moment and saw the zombies almost upon him.

Kyle fired his two guns at point blank range then crouched and jumped up to the ceiling. Their faces were a gory mess, but the zombies' eyes followed his trajectory and their legs crouched, preparing to pounce. She dropped from the ceiling behind them and punched the female in the back of the neck, breaking it. The zombie's head no longer had muscle support but the rest of the body was strangely still quite animated.

Jessi, knowing that just breaking the zombies' necks wouldn't stop them, swept their legs under them with a fierce leg sweep. The zombies growled and turned on her and tried to grab her. She evaded them as they advanced. Kyle dropped back down to the ground, having had no pipe to catch when he'd gone to the ceiling.

Jessi now knew why their hard hats had resisted her efforts. They had actually buckled the safety straps so the things were secure! She struck the zombie on the left, the male, with her palm, sending it flying. Her stomach flopped over when she heard the wet crunch of the ribcage. She suspected she could have ripped out its sternum with her fingers had she so desired. She swallowed hard, trying not to be sick at such a crucial time.

She saw Kyle's eyes open wide and the female zombie flew into the open elevator shaft, growling the whole way. It tried to scrabble the smooth stone wall to find purchase but found none and fell out of sight.

She vomited at her feet, unable to hold it in any longer. Despite this, she grabbed one of her spare guns and fired all six bullets into the face of the male zombie which she'd pushed moments before.

Without a face, it crumpled to the floor, its limbs squirming and clutching methodically. It still wasn't dead, but at least it would die faster now.

Kyle rushed to her aid and held her by her shoulders. "I'm fine," she said through clenched teeth. When he didn't let go, she remembered he couldn't hear her.

But he could read her lips just fine. She felt the familiar sensation of healing and looked at him questioningly. He said, "Your hand."

She looked at it and saw a lot of zombie gore on her right hand. She looked at it more closely and saw a number of the milliscopic bugs swarming over the dead meat. If they suddenly took off or contaminated her when she was so weak, she'd never survive. With all her will she mentally projected the blood and gore as fast as possible off her hand. Had one broken her skin? That was how they'd gotten in the first time, in Seattle.

The skin, a membrane that was so strong and stretchy, could withstand normal viruses and bacteria quite easily, but this new bug, whatever it was, was capable of penetrating it like it was butter, almost like it had teeth.

She looked at Kyle with dread. "Did any get in?"

Kyle seemed terribly worried. "I don't think so; a few tried though but I think I was able to repair the damage before they succeeded."

They had always known hand to hand combat with the zombies would be terribly dangerous, but now they had the proof. The zombies were still infected with the disease. They may not actively seek contamination of other bodies but it looked certainly possible if only they didn't generally kill their victims first. Like the typical horror flick though, if these had been undead zombies, they would have spread to all their victims and she and Kyle would likely have faced thousands if not tens of thousands more zombies than they already had.

It would have been a true hell on Earth.

She searched inside herself for any sign of imminent disease and found none. That didn't mean she wouldn't soon. After all, this appeared to be a different disease altogether. Glancing quickly into Kyle's eyes, she tried to reassure him with a smile, but it was half hearted at best. The blood freely flowing from his nose clearly showed he was exhausted as well.

"I think there's three left," he said. "The torch, the new leader, and another one."

"I think there's only two… Let's hope they haven't tried breaking into that room," she said.

"They might have because we were such pests." He chuckled. "Let's hurry."

"Follow me," she said and turned, carefully picking out a path through the piles of corpses littering the stairs. They had to avoid the gore too, which was already beginning to pool at every landing, in case it could get through their shoes. Before long, they instead decided to walk on the railings. Even though they were tired and almost every available surface was wet, they easily stayed upright and in fact did good time. They chose the inside rails so they wouldn't have to navigate the landings which were now covered in blood and cascading water.

They reached the bottom of the ten flights of stairs and saw the door welded shut as they had feared. At least everyone inside was still very much alive. A particularly thick paned window reinforced with steel bars stood in the middle and allowed an indistinct view of the interior.

Jessi was shocked to find the inside of the room had three inches of water on the floor. It likely had nowhere to go. Jessi pounded on the door a couple times, getting the other survivors' attention. Amanda came to the window and instantly recognized them. Kyle muttered for her benefit, "They trashed the camera too." Jessi spared a glance and saw the camera's remains. It had been torched to uselessness. They had to assume that all the cameras would suffer a similar fate, rendering the security room next to useless.

The alarm finally stopped blaring, and hopefully wouldn't anymore. Amanda suddenly started banging on the door.

"Don't they know the zombies sealed them in?" Kyle asked. He might not be able to hear his voice but he seemed to know very well how loud to be and be heard.

She spoke as loudly as she dared. "How many passed by here?"

Amanda banged on the door and they counted. When they got to ten they knew she was just frantic and hadn't heard Jessi's question. Amanda's mouth was moving erratically too; she was clearly jabbering words as rapidly as possible. It was then she noticed that other than for the pounding on the door, she couldn't hear Amanda's yelling or anyone else either.

That was one hell of a solid door.

Frustrated that these people didn't remember their previous instructions just because they feared drowning to death, in currently three inches of water, she loudly banged on the door in response. In retrospect, maybe she'd used just a little too much strength because her hand hurt afterward.

The banging echoed up and down the stairs in a cacophony of reverberations. She listened and put her hand up so Kyle would see it and stay silent too.

Thankfully Amanda seemed to recompose herself and lightly tapped on the door. It took only moments: four. After a three second pause, she tapped again, but this time did six taps. Probably because the sprinkler system was going crazy and every camera got fried as the zombies reached them, they weren't sure.

Kyle said a little louder than usual, "How many?"

Jessi turned and shrugged, "They don't know. They think between four and six."

Kyle seemed to stare through her. "We need that torch to free them." The water flowed freely down the steps. It was evident that only the siren had been deactivated. Maybe they wanted to drown the zombies down below or they couldn't stop the sprinklers from that room. By Amanda's reaction, the latter seemed vastly more likely.

There was no way to be sure of the number of zombies down there. If they were planning on using the torch to somehow free the zombies in the bottom five floors, the secret floors, they might have another set of problems altogether. They also needed to rest and clean up the corpses and the diseased runoff that was actively cascading down the stairs. Further, other than for the little water draining into the open elevator shaft, the fire at the bottom of the shaft was likely to continue for a while yet, and could also cause untold problems. Finally there was the forest fire that was raging outside and was sucking air out of the lab complex faster than it would be replenished.

To top it off, her bladder was telling her it needed emptying, again.

The situation was looking terribly grim. If either got sick now they could pretty easily die, or worse, become a zombie.

Jessi took a deep breath, held it for several calming seconds before exhaling noisily. She looked longingly into Kyle's blue eyes. For only the third time since the disease had wiped out all their friends and family, tears threatened to reduce her to a blubbering idiot. She bit her lip to make pain reduce the urge to cry. She needed to be strong, for him; she was the stronger one; he'd cried seven times already, including the two times she had. And yet the hot tears were right on the verge of falling. She felt her lip quiver and the tears pooling in her eyes. She might be able to kill hundreds of zombies but she felt powerless right now.

Kyle closed the gap between them and put his hands on her cheeks before passing his right hand through her wet hair. Having noticed that the streaks of blood he'd put below his eyes had been mostly washed away, she could only assume hers had been as well. Not for the first time, Kyle said, "Jessi, you don't have to fight tears; it's good to let go sometimes." She saw tears pooling in his eyes too.

She knew she was being a little irrational regarding tears and weakness and knew very well that he was right. It wasn't good for her sanity to keep everything bottled up all the time and yet she found herself doing it time after time. She said what came out first, the uncensored truth. "I feel vulnerable when I cry. I can't stand that feeling."

"I'll always be with you Jessi, you know that." He paused and gave her a sad smile as he let a single tear slide down his wet cheek. "I need you…" He trailed off as he gazed lovingly into her eyes. It made her knees weak when he looked at her like that. It felt like he gave her unconditional love, and strength, the ability to withstand any hardship. What now seemed so long ago, she remembered the first time he'd looked at her that way, when she had had no one but Emily Hollander as _family_. He'd been her family even then, even when she'd been programmed to turn against him.

She took a deep breath, her resolve strengthening. She smiled back to him. "I love you Kyle."

"I love you Jessi; you're all that I have now."

She had once been a pessimist but now some of his optimism had rubbed off on her, much like her pessimism had rubbed onto him. "Until we put our survival plan in action; by then we'll be knee deep in responsibility and won't have time for each other."

"If I have to steal five minutes in memory time to be with you, I will." He looked really good when he was that serious.

His smile brightened and she felt the softest tingling sensation in her ears. A brief surge of disbelief and anger made her want to yell at him for exerting himself when it wasn't necessary. But in much the same manner that he had behaved, she didn't actively protest the healing, even when both his nostrils started leaking blood. Instead she reached out her hand and brushed it away. She reapplied her blood streaks beneath her eyes. She realized he was going to stay here and she, with full command of her ears and her other senses, would track down the blowtorch and retrieve it by force.

She smiled grimly at him, even though she wasn't terribly happy at being separated.

Answering the unasked question, he said, "I'd only slow you down. We need to get that torch fast, before they do whatever they plan to do with it."

When the tingling stopped, she enhanced her hearing and heard his heartbeat. She sighed at the familiar sound. She stretched her senses further and could hear the survivors on the other side of the door, trying to stay calm and talking about being blind and trapped. She heard Joe calmly announce, "Five inches." It seemed to her he was taking it best of all of them. At least the water wasn't rising too quickly so she had time to accomplish her mission.

Since Kyle still held her head in his hands she planted a big kiss on his lips. She said, "Nimble Jack's candlestick is as good as mine."

"You're not planning to jump over the candlestick are you?" he asked with a small smile.

"Nah, probably will fry him with it though." She took his hands gently off her face. "Keep an eye up and down," she warned him.

"Do you hear any zombies up there right now," he asked, worried slightly. He started reloading and checking his remaining three guns.

She started doing the same. "No, but I hear a lot of water so it might be muffling some of the sounds." She jumped onto the railing, preparing to leave.

He never said good luck, likely because she didn't need any. "Get 'em," he said instead. It made her happy.


	6. Chapter 6: Zombie Turning

Jessi took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. She could barely believe it; she felt good, energized.

She stood on the first railing on her way to get rid of the remaining zombies and bring back the blowtorch. She turned to Kyle with a deep scowl. "You really outdid yourself. You have to be careful Kyle!" she almost yelled. He swallowed and brushed away the blood that continued to drip from both nostrils. He opened his mouth but didn't say anything. Instead he nodded to her with a sheepish smile and he went back to reloading his guns.

She was angry at him for having expended so much energy. She knew and understood his motives; she only didn't fully agree with them.

As she took another breath, it felt like he'd played energy tag and said, "You're it!" in mad glee before he collapsed on the floor with muscles periodically jerking to and fro. The image didn't comfort her one bit.

She turned again to him and said, despite her desire to berate him further. "I love you." She turned away and started quickly down the rail. She shouted, "Stay awake!"

She raced down the rails with nearly inhuman speed. Now that she was almost fully revived – _damn it Kyle, why did you go so far?_ – every step was sure, every slide was perfect. She couldn't control all of the squeaking and the sounds of water splashing here and there but with her speed it sounded like a perfectly reasonable, completely expected sound. It did not sound like someone racing down flights of stairs to put a bullet – or several – into zombie heads.

She passed two more landings and noticed begrudgingly the two toilets there had also been destroyed. The further she went, the more water cascaded down the stairs beneath her feet. Because she made little noise other than for the occasional squeak of her shoes on the rail, she picked up two heartbeats down below. She resisted the urge to go any faster. She was already making terrific time and would find her targets in less than a minute now but it was also because she didn't want to alert them in any way.

Grinding her teeth she thought of Kyle and, yes even Amanda Bloom, and all the other people who'd been killed by zombies. These zombies were much more human than the ones they'd had in Seattle and much of the American northwest, but deserved no better treatment. They killed indiscriminately, just like the others, that was clear. In fact, Jessi was now prepared to kill even an uninfected survivor if they posed a threat to either herself or Kyle.

Of course, that wasn't likely unless they had a gun and even so, it still wasn't all that likely.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a tickle at the back of her throat. It was so sudden and unexpected that she nearly missed her next step as well as the next turn. She reluctantly slowed and stopped at the next landing. She scanned her system for the hated milliscopic organisms that either killed the person or created the zombies. She swallowed the bile that instantly threatened to rise. Hadn't she already vomited enough? With renewed vigor she only barely registered that this toilet had been left untouched and raced even faster down the rails. The water cascading down the steps was getting louder, but so were the zombies' heartbeats.

At the next landing she jumped clear across it to the next railing. She could hear the low growls ten floors below.

Her mind reeled when she felt less than heard a certain cadence to the sound that had once repulsed her. She nearly stumbled when taking a corner.

The zombies were talking! How had neither she nor Kyle ever noticed it before? It didn't make a whole lot of sense yet but she was quickly figuring out how the various types of growls became specific commands. There was a structure, detailed and intricate, that surprised her utterly. She swallowed and ground her jaw shut even as she felt mucus dripping down her throat. It was progressing quickly.

When she emerged at the bottom of the stairs and saw the two remaining zombies close together while the one was operating the blow torch on a massive steel door with biohazard symbols on it – among numerous other warnings – she didn't immediately start firing as she had planned all of a minute ago. They both stood in about 20 inches of water.

She hesitated as he heart skipped a beat, trying to beat faster than it should.

The zombie not holding the blowtorch turned to her and growled, "You're new meat, welcome."

Jessi growled back, surprising herself, "And you're dead meat, good bye." She fired her guns repeatedly, quickly running out of bullets. The zombies hadn't had the chance to even grumble a response. The blowtorch remained in its dead operator's hands as the zombie slumped against the wall. She felt an adrenaline rush from the kills. She swallowed and coughed, trying to clear her throat. She partially succeeded and spat a gob of phlegm. It floated in the water.

She blinked twice when she saw the phlegm move a tentacle, in an effort to get back to her.

The blowtorch's operator, most certainly dead, was plastered to the thick biohazard door but started to slip. With only the thought of Kyle in her steadily clouding mind, Jessi pounced and landed in the water right beside the dead zombie and grabbed the blowtorch just as it was about to touch the water. With sheer determination and strength of will she coughed up two more blobs of living phlegm and felt a little better. She reached the stairs and started running as fast as her legs could carry her.

She found herself growling soon enough though, moaning, "I want to eat," and thinking of Kyle at the same time. It was a battle of wills and she ground her teeth harder than she had ever done and it actually felt good to feel the pain. She passed one of the few functioning toilets and considered destroying it, just for kicks, her heart hammering in her chest.

Angrily she shook her head and coughed up another ball of phlegm. They just kept coming! At least she now knew what they were. If only she could tell Kyle before she nibbled on him to death.

All this coughing slowed her down but she somehow knew that if she didn't do so, she would be lost to the disease before she even got to Kyle.

And then she'd rip him apart and eat his entrails. Or maybe just rip him apart and make him watch her eat the other fresh meat first, then eat his.

She vomited a large stream of mucus and phlegm and felt her mind clear somewhat.

Jessi growled, "Time to eat!" She raced up the stairs even faster, blowtorch still lit and still in hand.

Her hearing was beginning to dim as she got close to her meat, no, her Kyle. She vomited again and felt better. She turned the corner and saw him staring straight at her, guns pointed at her head.

He had known.

He uttered a single word, a four letter word that should have been real easy to understand, but all she could think of was breaking his neck. She growled at him, "Nibbles!" With the single word she launched herself at him. She saw the delicious blood all over his hands and smeared above his lips. He sidestepped her quickly and she crashed into the wall, dropping the blowtorch. She briefly wondered why she'd been holding that thing anyway. She turned on him, wanting to bite off his lips. Yep, she'd start with his lips. He looked really tasty.

She advanced on him again as he backed away. He put away the only things that posed any kind of threat to her existence: the guns. She suddenly had a great urge to cough up another ball of phlegm so she did, right at his feet. In a blur he put his hands to her head and her vision darkened and her thoughts of eating stopped in a rush.

***

Jessi the zombie lay at his feet, in a coma. Whether he could save her, or she save herself, he didn't have a clue. The first time they'd never allowed the disease to get so advanced. He'd hoped that by healing her she could fight it off or at least resist it but true to the one in Seattle, the disease attacked swiftly and drastically. In minutes one would succumb.

Having again overexerted himself, his vision clouded and he nearly stumbled into the mess she'd just vomited. Just before he recovered though, he noticed it move towards him.

He jumped at the ghastly sight and hurried to the blowtorch. For good measure he fried the living goop then tackled the door as Jessi lay unmoving at his feet. He swallowed and resisted the urge the cry. Without her, he was nothing. If she were to remain a zombie, he'd become one too, willingly.

**Author's Note: the story and I have come to this as a concession of wills. It wanted to kill Kyle and Jessi outright and I obviously wanted them to live!! So enjoy the cliffhanger for now. I know the chapter's short but short of killing them off, this is how it needs to be for now.**

**Did you want to know how the story wanted it? Brief summary follows: Kyle shoots her in the head, but not a kill shot, he can't do it to her. She crumples and vomits. He comes to her aid and as he tries in vain to heal her (he only partially succeeds but she's still bleeding heavily on the inside), as the gob just about gets him (to infect him), she notices it and heroically rips out his throat, killing him. So they die together in a heap.**

**Yeah, terrible I know.**


	7. Chapter 7: Trust

Kyle wasn't completely sure what to do. He kept fidgeting as he cut through the heavy steel door, agitated and wary more zombies were sneaking up on him from behind. Jessi was at his feet in a sitting position, positively burning up with fever – which was a very good sign – but that was also the only good thing going right now. From the fire likely still raging in the elevator shaft, the forest fire still sucking out air and oxygen from the lab complex as it raged outside, to the bloody and quite probably infected water still cascading down the steps behind him, there were a lot of things going against them.

That didn't even include how the other survivors would react to an unconscious Jessi and his inability to hear and need to sleep. He had to rest – he was on the verge of total exhaustion – but pessimistically believed they would try to kill Jessi as he slept.

He was almost through the door when he glanced again over both shoulders, looking for more zombies. He sensed the oxygen levels starting to decrease, although still quite slowly.

Once he cut through the door it opened on its own and a heavy surge of water pushed him back. Instinctively he dropped the blow torch and picked up Jessi before she got pushed down the stairs by the water. The water level in the room had reached almost a foot and a half and therefore posed a serious challenge to him since he was so tired. Through sheer force of will he stayed upright through the initial surge and it became much easier to withstand the next minute's more constant outflow.

Even before the water had completely finished pouring out of the security room, he walked inside and saw Amanda, Joe, Maria, and Ivan sitting on top of a high counter in the far corner.

He hated to mention this but they had to know. "I'm deaf," he said in what he believed to be a loud tone. He tried to compensate for the sound of the water rushing down the steps behind him.

When they saw him and the unconscious Jessi in his arms though, three of the four survivors blanched visibly. Only Joe didn't, though he also didn't look happy. He seemed terrified.

Kyle knew it wasn't going to go well.

The group shared glances to each other and Kyle read the lips as they conferred between each other, as he kept a straight face.

"They look terrible," Maria said.

Amanda nodded, "But they saved us, we have to help them," she paused, "don't we?"

Ivan exhaled, "And get mauled once _she_ turns? I don't bloody think so."

Amanda blocked her mouth with her hand so he didn't know what she said.

Maria said, "She does look sick so she might just die."

Ivan muttered, "Fat chance. We thought Henry was dying and he turned."

Kyle interrupted with a shout, "I've put her in a coma. She'll be fine when she wakes up."

Joe yelled at him, making large swings of his hands in the process. "What the hell dude? You read lips too? This is a private conversation!"

Ivan stared at Kyle with hostility in his eyes. "He probably lied about being deaf."

Joe asked, "And how did you knock her out? You don't keep those kinds of meds on you do ya?"

Three of the four nodded vigorously. Joe and Ivan were winning them over.

Amanda turned to face him directly. She looked very sad. She said, "Your wife is a liability."

Joe turned to her, "What did you say?"

Maria smiled wryly, "She's got a heart, unlike us."

Joe muttered, "She got a death wish I think."

Ivan opened his mouth to say something but Kyle shouted over his words, or at least hoped he did. "I'll take full responsibility for my wife's condition as a _liability_, if that makes you happy." He took a few more steps forward, while avoiding the direct spray from one of two sprinklers in the small room. "We have bigger problems than Jessi; she'll probably recover."

Amanda smiled broadly, "You are deaf."

Joe muttered from the sidelines, "And can read lips real easy." The other two stayed quiet or muttered behind hands to each other. Very soon Joe also covered his mouth.

Only Amanda seemed thankful but her smile vanished very quickly. "No one recovers from this disease. You either die or you turn."

Kyle sighed again. Jessi was starting to get heavy in his arms but he wouldn't let her go unless he was sure of their cooperation. "We were sick in Seattle and recovered. We're the only ones who can recover because we can force our bodies into a coma and produce a fever of 116 Fahrenheit which is the temperature needed to kill the bug."

Joe uncovered his mouth as he wiggled his hand in the air. "What the hell are you then? We've seen your shootin'!"

Ivan said to him, "Human organs shut down when you get to 108, that's not possible."

Kyle said angrily, losing his patience, "Take her temperature! She's already at 108 and it's still climbing."

Ivan replied, "She's already dead then or will die soon." The three laughed at that, in a particularly unfriendly way.

"We _are _human! We were created by a secret organization and kept in artificial wombs for sixteen years, originally intended to be used as organic super computers." He knew it was the truth, but held no illusion they'd believe him. And yet strangely, Amanda's eyes opened wide.

"_You_ are 781227?"

As if Latnok still existed with the Earth in hell! He nodded, unsure if it was even wise to confirm this. "She's 781228."

Joe, Ivan, and Maria all turned on Amanda. Joe said, presumably loudly, "What the hell are you talkin' about Amanda?"

She turned on them and yelled something he couldn't see and therefore read.

Ivan shouted, "That's nonsense!"

Maria got up, "She's just making stuff up, trying to get us to accept them!"

Joe and Ivan suddenly stood up and within a second Kyle roughly transferred Jessi to one arm, grunting from the effort, and drew one gun straight at Joe and Ivan. They could be dead in one more second. He yelled, "Don't you dare!" with a significant pause between each word. Maria backed up as far as she could but Joe and Ivan both stopped dead in their tracks.

It took him a moment to realize Jessi was now getting wet from the sprinkler so he difficultly shuffled a few steps to the side. Her fever had to keep climbing as quickly as possible if she was to have a chance at recovering.

Amanda, still turned to them said something and stretched out her arms toward the men with her palms facing down. Kyle assumed she was telling them to calm down.

Kyle didn't have the time for this; his energy reserves were dangerously low. At any time now he might collapse in fatigue, defenseless. He said, to no one in particular, "I have to sleep."

Amanda turned to him, concern etched clearly on her face. The others were clearly still hostile, but then having a gun pointed at your head did that to people. And yet, did he really have a choice? "You said there were problems? What are they?"

He sighed, "There's a fire at the bottom of the elevator, the front door's been breached and the forest fire outside is stealing our oxygen, and thanks to the sprinklers there's diseased water running down the entire stairwell." He ignored the impulse to say, "And you three."

Amanda got down from the counter and walked toward him under the withering glares from the others. "You have my support."

"Not theirs."

"Do we really need them?" she asked.

Despite carrying an extremely warm body, his body seemed to chill at that question. "Yes," was all he would say.

"Then I'll need a gun to protect you, preferably one with more than just six bullets, in case one of these zombies comes."

He saw from the corner of his eye Joe and Ivan make a commotion at her words, but he suddenly noticed his eyesight getting blurry in spots. He was started to fade, and fast. Could he trust her? With no choice, he handed her the twin to the gun he'd dropped in the elevator shaft. "You've used one before?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No, but I can figure it out."

He shuffled to another counter but had to go under the sprinklers to get there. With his remaining energy he mentally deflected the water, keeping Jessi dry. He propped her up into a sitting position, since this counter wasn't particularly wide, and sat down directly beside her. He pulled out a spare gun and glanced around the room.

Amanda sat on a chair in front of the now mostly useless security monitors. She was speaking to the others, but Kyle had so little energy he couldn't figure out what she said.

When his eyes closed, he was instantly asleep. His last thought was a prayer that he had made the right choice in trusting Amanda, who was clearly formerly Latnok.


	8. Chapter 8: What Eyes Don't See

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kyle XY; I wish I did (like most of us do)**

He opened and closed his eyes quickly, hoping to register everything that might be going on in the room while also appearing to be asleep. He then revisited his memory of that smallest glance and found it terribly disturbing. Joe was dead at Amanda's feet and another bullet hole was in the wall almost directly behind him. Ivan was nowhere in sight and Maria was cowering in the corner with Amanda's gun trained on her. It especially worried Kyle that he couldn't hear, even now. Jessi still didn't look great but her fever seemed constant at 118 F. That wasn't particularly far from their limit or his anyway. Although they shared many abilities it was clear to him they differed substantially in the performance of many abilities. He was significantly better at healing for example.

As he turned back to glance at himself, he saw speckles of dried blood all over him, but nothing on the wall behind him. Had she fired the gun in their direction?

He returned to reality immediately and opened his eyes. He sat bolt upright and instantly saw Ivan's corpse lying on the ground at his feet. Part of his brain was exposed. With his previous glance it was no wonder he didn't see him but his body had nonetheless registered the splatter marks wherever they had hit his skin. The majority of the gore had struck the wall several feet to the left of them. He stared hard at Amanda, who apparently had saved them both. "Thanks," he said.

Kyle's stomach rumbled badly. Kyle ignored it for the moment, noticing the men's mutiny had only failed because Maria had stayed frozen in place. Had she had the same resolve as both Joe and Ivan, she'd have been the only one left alive by the looks of it. He wondered idly if she knew that and whether Amanda knew it as well. Amanda turned to him and said, "I was getting tired of waiting for you to wake up. Can you hear now?"

He shook his head. "I need to eat first, then I need to help Jessi while she's still in her coma, then I need to go upstairs to dispose of the corpses there and see if we can't reseal the front door. The air pressure has gone down by six per cent since we got here." He paused for several moments. "It's still going down but slower I think." Maybe it would be okay.

Amanda looked at him sternly. "You need to hear, 781227."

"Kyle," he said, instantly angry. "That's my name."

Amanda grunted, neither dismissing him nor acknowledging him. He opened his free hand and concentrated. The gun in Amanda's hand flew into his and he then put both guns back into their holsters.

"You can trust me, Kyle."

He looked at her. "Do you know how much trouble Latnok caused me and my family?" She shook her head. He noticed she didn't say much when he asked her direct questions. Did she know more than she let on or was she normally this way? He continued nonetheless. "It's clear I can trust _you_ because you protected us."

"I'm not convinced she will recover, but knowing what you are –"

"Who, not what."

"Whatever!" she yelled. "I'm stronger in science than in language okay?"

He stayed mute, suspecting strongly that she was lying on that statement. She was the typical Latnok scientist. She probably only accepted them because they improved her chances of survival exponentially but she didn't think them as humans, only as experiments, and probably rogue ones at that.

"—talking about?" Maria said. He didn't catch the beginning but it was easy to guess.

He turned to Maria. "The secret organization Amanda worked for, and I don't mean this one," showing the lab around them with his hands, "technically made us." He indicated Jessi. "But, we're human. The only thing we have over you is our brains."

Amanda turned angry, her face red. "Do you tell everyone everything?"

"Amanda, don't you think Latnok has only a few living members left, if they're not zombies or overrun by them? Who the hell cares about the past anymore! We have to look to the future. We have to ensure the human race survives this, however long it takes."

He suddenly sensed a change in Jessi. "Great, no time for food," he muttered. His eyes opened wide. Did Amanda Bloom take care of them this way while they were in comas? Jessi's bowels were preparing to push out the remaining infection, whether he cleared the way or not.

As he hurried to unbutton her jeans, he only now recalled he had awakened from his coma in a different pair of jeans – and underwear. He swallowed hard as he realized she had done even more for them than they had realized. Of course, she'd strangely been immune, but he wasn't. If what came out wasn't completely dead, they'd have a big problem.

"I need gloves," he yelled, probably a little too loudly.

He could only guess the commotion he was causing by seemingly ripping off his wife's jeans and undergarments. He smiled at that thought. The lie meant to protect them had become truth in his mind. The sight made him acutely aware that he'd never actually looked down there on purpose, with perhaps the exception of Gretchen while he had delivered her baby. As quickly as it had come, his smile vanished as he wondered about their fate. Gloves were thrust in his hands by Amanda. "Thanks," he said and he gently pushed her away with his mind.

It started to come out, and quickly.

He exhaled as he learned it was all dead. It was messy as all hell though, and stank like death, but with the help of his mind and his gloves he kept Jessi otherwise clean by the end of it.

Once he was certain no more was coming out – he didn't even want to think how much there was, though he knew exactly – he started putting on Jessi's underwear. It somehow proved to be difficult, as he was tense from what had just happened. That and the fact she was naked on the bottom.

With a large breath he renewed his efforts to put her underwear back on when his eyes were distracted by something terrifying.

Jessi was staring at him.

**Sorry for the quick chapter, yes it's quite short, even for me. But I felt like this was a good place to stop and to wish everyone a happy time of the year whether you celebrate anything or not. My little family celebrates Christmas, so I'm unlikely to update this story again until the 28th at least. I just might be able to post the next chapter (it will be longer, I promise) before then but can't promise.**


	9. Chapter 9: The Plan, eh?

Jessi's eyes barely registered anything going on inside the room. The very first thing she noticed was Kyle struggling with her underwear just above the knee.

Allowing a small smile to appear at her lips, she asked him, "Are those coming on or coming off?" She laughed just a little, and found her throat to be a little hoarse. She glanced around, "Because, as much as I'd like them to be coming off, _hubby_ _dear_, I prefer to keep those interactions private." To drive the point home, she winked at him then took the underwear from him. In a few swift movements she was covered and decent again.

As she'd expected, Kyle was blushing from head to toe. Having just awakened from an ability induced coma, she wasn't completely sure what had happened. She had sensed danger and had therefore come back as soon as she was healthy, but only after about a fifteen minute warm up period. She stretched, and found her muscles to be very sore. She didn't feel any mucus at the back of her throat anymore thankfully. That nasty bug was fast as hell. It was an experience she never wanted to repeat.

Kyle suddenly said a few words, clearer than she'd thought he'd ever be able. "I was trying to celebrate your return to good health, my _dear_!"

Jessi opened her eyes wide and almost gasped. "They were coming off?" Even groggy, she loved playing with him.

With a hand pointing to the mess just a few feet away, he said, "No, they were already on the way back on."

He either didn't know she was playing with him or was putting on a really good show. She was leaning toward the former. In fact, she had noticed the mess, and the two dead men in the room as well as the blood splatter over the walls and on him. "You celebrated without me?" She faked an exaggerated pout.

Maria chose that moment to interrupt them, "You two are really weird. You do realize we're swimming in your—"

Jessi turned to the small woman, just as a chill made her shiver visibly. Her body temperature was still quite high but was coming down. "I know what _that_ is Maria. I was the sick one you know. In case you haven't noticed, there aren't too many real humans left in the world. No one but Kyle and I have the ability to recover from the infection."

Amanda interjected, "That was remarkable."

Maria harrumphed and crossed her arms. "The world is dead; who are we kidding!"

Amanda yelled, "Oh shut up already!"

Jessi shivered again. "We have to find humor somewhere or I'm just as likely to shoot you next time I have an itchy trigger finger." Kyle's hand was on her head faster than she could have reacted. She reflexively clenched her teeth, waiting for his healing to start.

The pit of her stomach grumbled strangely at his touch. She paled and whispered so only he could hear, "Is it all gone?"

She noticed him staring at her lips. Of course, he was still deaf and would need her to heal him but if she wasn't completely healthy was it wise to let her do it? She searched within herself and felt both Amanda and Maria's attention turn to her. They suspected it too.

"It's not your stomach," Kyle said after almost a minute.

She tried searching inside herself but felt oddly weak. It felt like it was lower, somewhere nothing should be.

_What the hell?_ she thought. She touched his hand and the room around them vanished and was replaced by their memory of the Trager home in Seattle, however empty it was.

Kyle pursed his lips and looked away.

"How did I get pregnant?" she yelled. For all the fun and games about being Kyle's wife and sharing kisses for every zombie they killed – and there was one hell of a backlog of owed kisses now – not once had they even come close to having sex yet. A couple nibbles on the neck, sure, and a little topless action but definitely no sex.

Without turning toward her, he said, "I don't think you're quite pregnant. It's like the bacteria, virus or whatever burrowed into your uterus for safety." _Or for proliferation_, she finished his unspoken thought.

Jessi wanted to punch herself in the gut, cut herself open and pull it out by whatever means necessary. There was no way she'd allow that thing to stay inside her. Of course here it would have no effect. She put her hand on his shoulder and said, "At least you can hear here."

He sighed heavily. Her attempt at changing the subject failed. "We have to put you into a coma again."

She grabbed him with both arms and turned him around to face her. "We don't have the time for that."

He seemed to be ignoring her. "I think you have to go higher, maybe 125, to kill it." He paused, sighed, and looked into her eyes with tears in his. "That's so close to our limit, even when completely healthy. I can't lose you Jessi."

"Well, our plan doesn't require the use of my uterus. We can just cut it out right?" She tried to smile but failed miserably. She had thought that all that coughing and vomiting would prevent her turning into a zombie. Now, with it firmly ensconced within her uterus, might she still become one? It very well might answer the question as to how he could now move faster than she could.

"I want your uterus Jessi, for _our babies_!" Kyle broke into tears.

His proclamation didn't shock her as much as she thought it would. She knew he loved her, had loved her even at the time of that sick love triangle they had with Amanda Bloom. She thought of a dozen comments but they all were scathingly blunt – or actually sharp – but she didn't want to hurt him. She wanted the thing out of her! She bit back the mean words and instead hugged him fiercely. She even allowed a few tears to fall – well, a few more than a few – and eventually calmed down somewhat.

"We should head back," Kyle said, no closer to a decision.

It had already been six minutes and thirteen seconds.

"Couldn't we open me up and have you heal it afterward?" she said, this time ignoring him.

Kyle closed his fists tightly at his sides. "I'm too hungry to do a whole lot right now."

"I'm hungry too but I just figured it was because of my, you know." She suddenly had an inkling of feeling nauseous. She only vaguely recalled all the coughing and more about moving phlegm but then she remembered a whole lot more. "Kyle, the zombies talk when they growl! I could understand them!"

"When you almost became one?" His brow furrowed and he pouted, looking terribly pathetic.

"This is not a disease caused by a virus or bacteria. It's a symbiotic parasite of sorts, a highly evolved bug that seems to rudimentarily control its infected subjects through the use of gobs of moving mucus, which I don't really understand yet. Because it's only in my uterus though, it should be safe to eat and do a few other things," she said, suddenly pressing her body against him. "_Dear_," she added with a smile.

To her delight he smiled back, though a bit subdued.

"You know, when all this is done, we have a lot of kissing to catch up on," she said, teasing.

"I lost count, was it three hundred or a thousand?" His blue eyes smiled at her but she saw the fear there nonetheless. "My lips might get bruised if we do that all in one day." He made an exaggerated kissing gesture.

She ignored his joke, feeling somewhat irked. "I'm not a zombie yet Kyle. I'll cut it out myself if it gets to that."

Hi sighed, his tenuous smile evaporating. "Let's go back," he said, encouraging her to let go of the memory space since she'd been the one to initiate it.

The old Trager home twisted and became the security room they took as a refuge. It wasn't much of that anymore with a small door cut through the welded shut original door. The sprinklers continued unabated.

Suddenly she was roughly pushed aside and a gun flashed in her face. She then realized Maria and Amanda were both yelling and converging on their position. She turned and stopped Amanda who seemed intent only on clobbering Maria with her bare hands. Maria stopped screaming immediately and ceased all movement. Jessi turned to her and saw Kyle's gun touching the woman's forehead. Maria's arms were held high and her lip quivered in fear.

"Did you think you could kill us Maria or was that your suicidal streak talking?" Kyle asked.

She backed a step and Kyle moved forward to compensate. The gun never left her forehead. Maria was clearly agitated. "There's no hope of survival! You might be able to recover from this disease but I have no hope."

Kyle's forehead furrowed once more but he advanced as she backed up. "Our next door neighbor was completely immune when we were not. There _is_ hope. We have a plan, Jessi and I, but we need as many people as we can find to help us."

Jessi said, "Uninfected people."

Kyle added, "I don't want to kill you Maria but if you try to attack us or you try to leave, I'll have no choice."

Amanda started to say something but Jessi stopped her. Maria was wavering. "What's your plan?" Maria said finally.

Amanda tried to push her way past Jessi but she restrained her. With a single look Amanda took a step back. Tensions were already high enough and Jessi could feel everyone on edge, making her even edgier than normal. Her trigger finger was itchy, whether by the earlier suggestion or just coincidence. She doubted coincidence had anything to do with it.

"We have the blueprints to make artificial wombs and the ability to modify some elements of the human genome to make humans mature faster."

From her spot, Amanda said, "How much faster?"

Kyle never saw her speak but had noticed Maria turn her eyes to Amanda. "Jessi?"

"We think we can cut down gestation to fifteen weeks."

Kyle nodded, "And if we force gestation to continue beyond that, to nine months, the humans who are born will have the ability to overcome the disease by going into comas like we do." She guessed the controlled fever aspect wasn't necessary to mention.

Jessi added, "And they won't be teenagers like we were; they'll be the equivalent of five or six year olds."

Amanda waved her arm to get Kyle's attention. "That sounds like a good plan but won't you be reducing human life expectancy in the process?"

Kyle smiled, "Yes, perhaps at first but it won't be permanent. Imagine a hundred or a thousand people like us working on the problems of living with this new disease. It'll take time, I grant you that, but for every second out here, we actually have about a minute's worth of time to talk in our heads."

Jessi grimaced as he mentioned one of her most cherished secrets. She saw Amanda's glance from the corner of her eye and berated herself for letting her displeasure show.

"You looked like a sitting duck to me," spat Maria.

"Who has a gun to her head?" returned Kyle with the most venom Jessi had ever heard. "Do you have a death wish?"

Jessi couldn't stomach the ferocity in his voice and in his posture. This stranger was trying to turn him into a monster and there was no way she was going to allow it. She moved forward and carefully raised the gun from the woman's forehead. "Maybe you'll behave differently when you wake up," she said, her hand suddenly touching Maria's head.

Maria's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she crumpled immediately but Jessi caught her and laid her down on the counter she'd been on when Jessi had first come to. Turning to both Kyle and Amanda, Jessi smiled shyly and shrugged, "I'm hungry, what's on the menu?"

Kyle turned to Amanda. They were both tired of dried rations and cans of soup and beans. They hoped for something different.

"We have a lot of beans," replied Amanda. "Some dried fruit and some salted, dried meat." She smiled, "It's all in three large freezers we have in the labs directly below us."

In an effort to lighten the mood – she still felt Kyle's rage, which unnerved her – she muttered, "Beans, beans, the musical fruit."

But Kyle didn't hear her and had his head turned away. It triggered something in her to just go ahead and screw the consequences. As fast as she could she pounced on him, hands outstretched. Even without his hearing he managed to turn around in time but she got him nonetheless. His teeth were clenched tightly and he was radiating anger. She knew it wasn't directed at her but it bugged her badly.

"Jessi had a little lamb," she said.

He rolled his eyes and glanced at his new tan. "Its skin was a beautiful tan," he muttered as she started healing his ears.

"And everywhere that Jessi went," she prompted.

"The lamb was sure to go," he said, not even bothering to change it.

She stared into his eyes with a "You need this" look. With a renewed smile she said, "It followed her to the lab one day,"

A tiny smile appeared in his eyes and she felt his anger dissipate. "Way out in Manitoba," he said

"And together they shot 96 zombies in the head, eh?" she said, almost bursting into a mad fit of giggles.

"While a forest fire rages overhead," he said, then in his best lamb imitation, baaed, "Baa!" He smiled broadly.

Amanda on the other hand was shaking her head. "Whatever rocks your boat; we Canadians don't even say 'eh' that often."

Jessi started to giggle as she got another idea, but her concentration was beginning to waver as her stomach rumbled, her real stomach. The situation with her uterus seemed stable for now. She bit her lip in an effort to concentrate. When she was done she felt utterly drained, and swooned, but Kyle caught her, as always.

"I love hearing your heartbeat," he said with a genuine smile.

She might have started to recite a defiling of _Row, Row, Row Your Boat_ but there was something a little more pressing on her mind as she gazed into his beautiful eyes. She was a little out of breath but there was no sign of any mucous anywhere, inside her at least.

"I'd kill for a bite of fresh lamb, but dried meat will do, with beans," she said, batting her eyelashes at him.

"Sure thing," he said, still smiling. "But first, let's do a little cleanup in here." Kyle closed his eyes and suddenly the two corpses and the disturbing mess swiftly moved out the door and started down the stairs.

Jessi said, "That's vile stuff. That was inside me right?" She stuck out her tongue in disgust. She turned to Amanda, "Nice shooting; that mustn't have been easy."

Amanda didn't respond and only stared at her feet. Jessi figured it was because it had been her first two kills; the fact they had been real humans – and acquaintances and quite possibly friends – it must have been really hard.

Kyle opened his eyes to glance at her but said nothing. She knew very well what he was thinking about: the thing still inside her. Amanda interrupted their glance with a hand on both their shoulders. Jessi only hoped she was unaware of the situation and could remain so for a while yet.

Amanda's mouth opened and closed. After a big sigh, she resumed, "Maybe I should have told you sooner, but I'm 781213."


	10. Chapter 10: From the Ground to the Sky

**Author's Note: For almost a month I personally couldn't stand the idea of having made Amanda into another XX and so I struggled with rewriting the end of the previous chapter (which I never did to my satisfaction) and finally decided to semi-downplay her XXishness (what a term!) by making her more like Adam and Sarah but in a different direction altogether. I hope you like it.**

Jessi couldn't believe her ears; Amanda was another XX, like her. "Why didn't you help us fight the zombies?"

Amanda laughed mirthlessly. "I would have died in front of the elevator shaft. We all saw what you did before they destroyed the camera there. For one, I was genetically modified to have special eyesight and mental capabilities but you," she pointed at the two of them with her eyes, "are so far beyond me there's simply no comparison. My brain is only slightly above normal."

Jessi wasn't completely sure Kyle had even noticed the same thing she had. When Amanda had pointed at them with her eyes, the two eyes had moved independently from the other. And yet, Kyle's hidden grimace was not lost on Jessi. He had no love for Latnok, either past or present. "Can you see in the dark?"

"No," Amanda said with an oblivious smile. But then her eyes did something that thoroughly surprised Jessi, and Kyle as well. The irises traveled with complete independence in their sockets, much like a chameleon. "It's the only reason I was able to stop both Joe and Ivan before they bashed your heads in."

Kyle nodded as he noticed she was telling the truth. Jessi often wondered if their lie detecting ability was foolproof or not. Couldn't Amanda be telling the truth, but not _all _of it?

Jessi took a step forward, until the sprinkler above her splashed water just in front of her shoes. "You worked _for_ Latnok then? Even with their general disinterest for their experiments' lives?"

Realization seemed to dawn in Amanda's eyes. "I was the Canadian chapter's founder's daughter so I never personally experienced your hardships. In our chapter we have always treated experiments like the humans they are. But then, we never had the funding the US, China, Russia, and Europe received. We were a very small chapter."

Kyle's eyes turned somewhat suspicious again. "I thought Latnok was a worldwide operation."

"It is for the most part." Amanda became solemn. "When we learned of your creators' abrupt deaths we demanded an internal investigation but were almost disenfranchised for insubordination."

Jessi barked a laugh. "You make it sound like a business!" She'd clearly heard the mention of creators instead of parents.

"It is," Amanda exclaimed. "The US and Russian branches were bigger than any government and much more powerful as well. They operated in the shadows and had enough people in government and military to keep them immune from any investigation or retaliation. Whatever those two branches did was beyond the reproach of even the Council." She paused for a moment and raised her hand toward the door. "Let's go get some food and deactivate the sprinklers before we flood the entire bottom floor."

Jessi pictured the water levels as they were hours ago. "The bottom two floors are likely already flooded; the bottom one was half way up my thigh when I went down there."

Amanda nodded. "You'd know better than I would."

***

Together they ate a simple meal of dried veal and canned beans. Although not exactly a decadent meal it certainly satisfied Jessi who'd been totally tired of travel rations and more canned beans. This brand was touted as hot and spicy and it hit her palate just right, helping to destroy any remnant of the nasty taste at the back of her throat from her ordeal.

The conversation was light and no longer on the topic of business or Latnok. Amanda mostly talked about herself, perhaps to assuage their fears or because she was happy to reveal her secrets to people who could appreciate them. Jessi wondered if it wasn't both. That and the fact they were three of a small percentage of survivors likely on the planet.

Kyle, between mouthfuls of beans, asked Amanda, "Did you get any warning about this disease when it struck? Do you know if it became an epidemic?"

Jessi smiled in spite of herself. Kyle was always the one telling her she was too serious and for once she just wanted to have a nice meal without thinking of the monster she'd almost become. She had originally thought she should let Amanda answer the questions but Jessi decided otherwise. "Sing a song of sixpence a pocketful of veal, four and twenty black beans baked as a meal!"

She'd kept her eye on Kyle the entire time, hoping to get him to just eat and be merry. The underground building wasn't likely going to burn down from the elevator fire and the forest fire outside they were completely powerless against anyway.

Kyle sighed as he shrugged to Amanda who glanced her way with a small smirk, with only a single eye. It was a pretty creepy sight actually. Finally with a small smile Kyle finished her nursery rhyme, "When the can was opened, the can did reveal, isn't that bean a little off because it tastes like eel?" He looked to Amanda briefly then to Jessi, "That was a tough one Jessi. Rhyming with veal while also talking about beans in a can? Good one."

For a moment Jessi had thought he might berate her but then he gave her one of his bright smiles and it made her feel better. And yet, despite her efforts at steering the conversation away from the serious aspects of their situation, Amanda answered Kyle's previous questions.

"We didn't have any warning. One moment the major earthquake in the Dead Sea caused widespread blackouts in that area and within hours the prevailing winds seemed to spread the death and sickness at such a rapid rate that we only had an inkling that something really bad was coming so we holed ourselves indoors. To answer your second question, I can't fathom it not having reached epidemic status, considering what you've told me of the disease."

Jessi had a sudden inspiration. "Amanda, do you have access to government sensitive files or satellite feeds? We could hack in and look for ourselves."

Kyle, ever the responsible one – and the killjoy – said, "After we're done with the problems here of course."

"Power," Jessi muttered, recalling that most likely many places would be losing power by now, especially with forest fires such as the one raging above them right now.

"There is a chance Jessi," Amanda said. "There are other government underground facilities in this country and they should all be generating their own electricity so it's possible."

When they'd last hacked into satellite pictures of the Dead Sea they'd only been able to see darkness surrounded by piles of dirt and debris floating high in the air currents prevalent there. It had made the picture less than satisfactory.

The conversation had finally turned once more to mundane things or questions like, "How do we turn off the sprinklers?" Amanda looked a little embarrassed as she got up and walked up to a console and punched in the command. The water stopped immediately. "I should have thought of that."

At least there were no such consoles in the security room they'd been holed in. Jessi was chewing a rather tasty – and salty – chunk of dried veal when she stiffened at a sound that was only barely within range. It was horribly low, and well below the typical human threshold for low frequency sounds.

It had said, "Help, we are burning."

Kyle was instantly in front of her, a hand to her forehead. She clearly felt the tingling sensation of a full body scan. She knew she was healthy. There was only the background noise that seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.

It said now, "Help, we are starving."

And another said, "Help, we are dying."

The word help was repeated so much in the next several seconds that Jessi fell to her knees screaming. The words didn't hurt nor did they actually overwhelm her; it was just that she couldn't find a way to block the sounds out.

Jessi groaned, "Make it stop!"

Kyle, after having completed the scan mumbled something to Amanda and took Jessi by the arm. In the blink of an eye they were in their mutual memories of their old home. The voices stopped. Jessi breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Kyle said, "Has it stopped?" He clearly didn't know exactly what had been troubling her but had to ask the most obvious question in the universe at every given opportunity. Nonetheless it still made her smile.

She nodded then answered his unasked question. "When I was turning into a zombie I could understand their growls as speech. But worse," she added after a second, while he stood before her clutching her arms, "I think the bugs are the real things that are talking when the zombies talk and now they're dying and are clamoring for my help."

"I only heard the vaguest of low frequency sound but nothing even remotely sounding like voices." He was perplexed it was almost cute – almost. Because it pertained to her, it wasn't quite as much.

"I think because I have one inside me they talk to it and it relays the messages to me, into my brain." She shook her head as he opened his mouth. "I can't block the voices at all."

"Do you think it can force you to act?"

She thought about this. The voices hadn't hurt but had pressed upon her brain like a huge wave, an unimaginable onslaught of thoughts demanding assistance. She thought she should be able to disregard them with no adverse reaction since there were no bugs in her system actively, only the one hiding out in her uterus for safety. "No." However if the voices kept going for hours or days it might be grating and quite possibly make her absolutely loony, if she wasn't already partially so.

Kyle muttered low, "Those aren't normal bugs or parasites. He gazed into her eyes, his forehead creasing with concern. "Could they be alien?"

Jessi laughed at the thought only because she'd thought the same thing. "Did a meteorite strike the Dead Sea, one that somehow eluded all our satellites and such on the way in?" She only really asked to get conversation going, not because she didn't know the answer.

"It's possible, especially if it came from just behind the sun."

"What do we know about the Dead Sea?" she asked.

"It has a lower elevation than the oceans and has been getting lower for probably hundreds if not thousands of years. It's one of the lowest places on Earth…" he trailed off.

In their memories their bodies shouldn't be able to experience pain or other physical manifestations – even lust , too bad really – but she just had a smattering of goose bumps on her arms and legs. His eyes grew wide just as she started to speak. Maybe he had come to the same thought as she. "What if it finally just crumbled?"

"What if there was nothing under it to prevent it from doing so?" he added.

"What if there was a vast bacterial or parasitic ecosystem under the Dead Sea –"

"Hundreds of thousands of years old, or even millions," he interjected.

Without breaking stride she finished, "When released into our ecosystem, it could infect everything!" The excitement was bubbling inside her.

"There's no telling what it couldn't do," he said, subdued.

***

When they returned to the real world, Amanda was white as a sheet and shivering. Both Jessi and Kyle instantly thought she might somehow be infected but that was quickly dispelled.

Amanda simply shook her head and pointed upwards. A piercing shriek went through the opening in the front door to the lab and echoed down the many stairs to where they were.

Jessi asked, "How long has that been going on?"

"That's the tenth one but that's not th—" she stopped as a huge crash or explosion sounded well above them.

It was only then that Jessi noticed the voices had stopped. They were being rescued.

Three more piercing shrieks bounced off the walls, each varied sufficiently to know there were in fact three.

"What is that?" Amanda asked, on the verge of blubbering incoherently.

Kyle shook his head, clearly at a loss for words and he then glanced to Jessi for her input.

She _knew_. She figured it was the thing inside her that told her but in any event it wasn't something she was happy admitting. "They're dinosaurs, pterodactyls or maybe a somewhat bigger descendant. The three we're hearing are three different species." She gasped as much more information came to her. "They're zombies too!" She stared at them with wild eyes. "The parasites have been breeding in them for millions of years and now they have a feast!" She didn't need to mention that most of the land based dinosaurs and the many water based dinosaurs had perished when the Dead Sea fell upon them.

What worried her most was what Kyle had said: there was no telling what the one in her uterus couldn't do.


	11. Chapter 11: They Just Won't Die Capn!

**Author's Note: Once this story is complete, it will be my last, at least until after I am thoroughly employed, and quite likely in the same North Bay as in my ficlet **_North Bay, Population X6000_**. I will finish this one though before I'm through. I am also very sorry about the delay; it's hard to be happy and writing when unemployed for months at a time. I write a lot more when happy!**

**Note: This chapter will be the only one from the point of view of Amanda XX.**

It felt like Kyle and Jessi had completely forgotten her. They muttered a few figures – likely the number of bullets they had left – and checked their weapons as they got up and gobbled the last vestiges of their previously quiet meal.

Kyle almost shouted as he checked a gun, "We should have brought the big stuff with us after all."

Jessi said, no longer troubled by sounds Amanda couldn't hear, "You know we couldn't have made it here in time if we had. We'd have been in much more serious trouble." Only then did Amanda realize Kyle had meant larger guns. Had they come across machine guns or something?

That last comment made Amanda chuckle. As if their predicament wasn't serious enough!

Kyle never looked at Amanda. "True, Jessi." He paused for a moment then asked, "I read once that many dinosaurs had two brains. Any idea if they have two as well?" He took a few long strides to the stairwell before noticing her, "Amanda, go back to the security room. We'll see what we can do about the pterodactyls."

"I want to help," she replied.

"Keep up," Jessi answered as she thrust a gun into her open hand. "That one only has four bullets left," she added.

To her astonishment Kyle and Jessi jumped onto the stairwell railing and ran up them as though it was even ground. Within seconds they were out of sight and seconds later she could hear them firing their guns.

Had the dinosaurs actually breached the lab? She greatly feared to learn the truth but she pressed on nonetheless. She made sure to run as quickly as possible while looking in all directions. It felt great to be able to actually use her sight again as it had been created. For so many years she had refrained from doing it at all for fear of being seen on camera.

Amanda was nearing the top floor when she saw the many zombie corpses piled high in the stairs. Pterodactyls continued to screech and smash into the roof of the lab but the air was noticeably warmer up here.

She kept one eye looking in front of her to keep her steady on the railing but the other eye couldn't help but notice the many gaping stomach wounds from a number of the zombies. It was true she might never have thought to call her friends and coworkers zombies – she had always liked watching zombie movies, especially the zombie dinosaur franchise (how ironic!) – but the term was beginning to stick.

Besides, to call them psychos just wasn't bad enough.

The smell wasn't particularly appetising to say the least but fear and dread washed over her as she realized only the women had gaping holes in their stomachs. Whatever had come out of Jessi, dead obviously, was breeding inside women.

As a wave of nausea threatened to make her tumble into the pile of wet, rotting corpses, she recovered just in time by bending her knees and stretching her arms out to the sides. She was thankful Jessi was completely cured.

She could almost picture some strange deformed arachnid or something – she had a nasty distaste for spiders – suddenly erupting out of Jessi's abdomen and flying headlong into her screaming mouth. Just the thought almost made her gag and it paralyzed her on the railing.

It was probably a good thing because the sounds directly above her were intensely frightening. Loud crashes, small explosions, and countless bullets were fired.

Jessi suddenly shouted, bringing her back into action, "I'm out!"

Only seconds later after another quick burst of bullets, "They're not dying!" Kyle yelled above the din.

Amanda emerged carefully from the stairwell and was awestruck by the huge gash in the ceiling overhead. It really was no wonder that it was quite hot in here when a sizeable chunk of the roof was missing.

With one eye pointed directly at Kyle and Jessi, the other frantically scanned all around. Seeing something crawling on the ground only feet from Jessi, Amanda fired her gun and yelled, "Don't move!"

The yellow thing instantly splattered but several others seemed to climb out of the elevator shaft at the same time. There were no eyes, no ears, only a grimy looking mess with something that looked like tentacles and maybe a longer tail.

The things were only about six to eight inches long and about four inches high. There didn't even seem to be a mouth on the suckers until one opened a previously invisible maw and screamed a silent scream.

Or at least that was what Amanda thought because suddenly Jessi fell to the ground clutching her stomach in response. Kyle threw his hand out toward the creatures and they flew back into the elevator shaft, hitting the far wall hard and becoming nothing but grimy splotches there.

Amanda's roaming eye noticed the lone red glowing eye that descended upon them. One of the pterodactyls was likely trying to get in through the gash to some fresh meat. She quickly pointed her gun up to that fiery eye and squeezed the trigger repeatedly.

A huge scream nearly threw her off balance as Kyle grabbed Jessi and pounced toward her. Where Kyle and Jessi had been a huge scaled head hit the metal floor and severely dented it with a sickening crunch. The reverberations were enough to make Amanda fall off the railing.

She closed her eyes and was bringing her arms in front of her to land on the corpses but was instead grabbed an invisible hand and literally thrown onto the railing in front of Kyle who had slowed appreciably.

When they had retreated three flights, Jessi said, "Stop."

Kyle did immediately and effortlessly. How she already envied the two of them for their superior abilities. Although she'd not told them everything there likely wasn't a whole lot these two couldn't replicate and do better than her given a little practice.

She was however rather thankful to be alive at the moment.

Kyle, who still held Jessi in his arms as though she were only a few pounds, asked her, "What's wrong Jessi?"

The love between the two was palpable and touching. Amanda nonetheless chose to ignore it. She racked her brains thinking whether the guards' storerooms might hold something of use. She only didn't have a way in as it was almost certainly locked even now.

Jessi said, her eyes recovering, "The two remaining pterodactyls are leaving." She took a deep breath and released her abdomen. "You took out the parasites they intended to save, or most of them."

Jessi flashed her a large smile, which Kyle copied. "Thank you so much!"

Amanda smiled broadly in response. She was happy to have been of help, but her roaming eye was fixed squarely on Jessi's abdomen. Inside there she was sure one of those things was growing and would pounce on her while she slept.

If she'd had another bullet in that now useless gun, she would have fired it squarely upon her.

Kyle said, "Let's go back to the security room and plan out our next steps."

"We need weapons," Jessi said with a sour frown.

"There's a guard storeroom on the twentieth floor – don't ask why it's there of all places – but it's almost certainly locked and the door is a lot heavier than the security room door."

Amanda wondered if she'd even get the shot off if she even had the chance. These two wouldn't miss much if at all. Besides, unless she shot Jessi squarely in the head first, he'd likely be able to revive her. By then she would surely be dead.

Not seeing any good from trying to be quiet, she said instead out loud, "So Kyle, when do you think it's going to pop out of Jessi like all the other women?"

Kyle and Jessi shared a look and held each other's hands for several seconds. Amanda made sure not to make any sudden moves. If they suspected her she had no idea whether they would kill her or simply abandon her to a more grisly fate.

No, Amanda made quite sure not to move and to leave her hands in plain view the entire time. It was true they moved very little whenever they touched and communed that way – whatever they did was still a mystery to her but she knew they communicated quickly when they did this – but she wasn't at all certain whether they couldn't see her.

Although it was true Kyle had asked her how long the screeching had been going on after the last time when they'd been eating, it was nonetheless possible they had varying degrees of depth to their communication. Perhaps they could communicate and keep tabs on their surroundings at the same time. Without that certainty, she would and could do nothing.

To her dismay, both Kyle's and Jessi's gazes were hard. They no longer trusted her; that was eminently clear in Jessi's next words.

"Bring us to the storeroom; you lead."


	12. Chapter 12: Really Long Night

**Author's Note: I can't believe both Heroes and Flashforward have gone the way of Kyle XY – into Oblivion! Those were the only shows I watched this past year!**

_It was late the next afternoon by the time we got to rest again. As I wrote a protractedly long entry into my journal, after we'd tossed all the corpses down the shaft and made a makeshift barrier to the lower levels, I was startled when Jessi appeared beside me without my noticing._

"Kyle," she whispered breathlessly.

Simply her tone made him glance at her with worry. He knew both Amanda and Maria were asleep and Maria looked to be cooperating, at least for now. He raised his arm to feel her shoulder, to scan for further sign of infection but his hand grazed something he hadn't intended.

His breath caught and the glint in her eye made it look like maybe, just maybe, she'd forced his hand to touch there.

"We've killed a rather large number of zombies, Kyle. I'm here to claim my reward." Without further preamble her lips were locked onto his and they kissed ardently, ferociously, until his lips nearly ached. His mind reeled as the kisses went deeper and he found her hands all over him.

Still, his eyes closed from the passion. It was one way he would be able to keep himself from remembering every touch, every embrace, and every kiss. He thought sometimes that his perfect memory could sometimes be a bane.

The kisses reached the half way mark of their zombie kills when she growled and bit his lower lip, sending a sharp jab of pain. It was short lived but against his desire he opened his eyes.

Jessi the zombie stared at him in a mixture of lust and hatred. Her mouth was wide open but instead of her tongue a large yellowish creature was climbing out of her mouth to enter his.

Kyle screamed at the top of his lungs and tried valiantly to get out of the deadly situation. He found himself unable to break free. The monster, the age old parasite, had full control over Jessi. She was now a zombie goddess.

It was hopeless. He only hoped the coming transformation process would keep him from remembering the horrors he would unleash unto the world.

"Kyle!" he heard at the edge of his perception. He'd been a zombie now for over six months and was fabricating culture tanks to clone humans so the zombies would have an endless supply of fresh meat. Did it matter that he had grown fat and was constantly feeding on fresh humans?

"Kyle!" he heard again.

He growled at the name he had once worn as a badge of honor.

"Kyle!"

Kyle's eyes opened to find Jessi barely clothed on top of him. She held his shoulders tightly in her fists and felt vaguely that she'd been vigorously shaking him.

"Kyle," she said much more softly. "You're finally awake."

His lower lip hurt and he found himself fully clothed on the small cot just a few feet from the small desk he'd written in his journal. He belatedly tasted a little bit of the iron in his blood. His lip had split.

Kyle brought his hand to his mouth while Jessi rolled off him but clung tenaciously onto him. "Can you move over a bit?" she urged. "I'm hanging over the edge here."

He didn't move. "How did I bite my lip?"

She looked at him coyly. "I was trying to wake you up."

He moved onto his side, allowing her a little more of the tiny mattress. It was not made for two.

"Is it morning already?" he asked.

She looked at him strangely and answered, "It was morning when I went to sleep and it was probably noon by the time you did having seen how much you've written into that book."

That book. The words bothered him greatly. "It's a record of humanity's recovery at the," he paused slightly for the right word to spring to mind, "mucous-like tentacles of an age old enemy."

Her lips softened into a smile. "Do you even remember going to sleep?"

He quickly searched his memory but his eyes burned and he couldn't concentrate.

"You wrote two hundred twenty-eight pages before going to bed." His eyes opened wide. "You were in mid word when you fell asleep." Her smile grew large but was tinged with concern. "If you ask me, it looks like you'd been planning on filling another fifty to a hundred pages before stopping."

He stretched and yawned. He took stock of his condition and learned he'd been sleeping for maybe half an hour at best. He didn't remember the words he'd been writing. "Was I coherent?" he asked her.

She laughed. "Like a drunk who's been binging, but who is also ridiculously intelligent." He started to get up when she stopped his upward movement. "No you don't. I want the kisses you owe me."

When she puckered and approached he couldn't stop the shudder that passed through him. When her lips touched his in a soft kiss, he jumped and fell off his side of the cot. The image of zombie Jessi was too strong.

Within just a few seconds her hand was outstretched in front of his eyes. "This bed is too small," he heard her say. "You want me on top or on the bottom?" When he didn't immediately grab her hand he felt himself get picked up by an unseen force, flipped over, and dropped on top of her. She smiled devilishly.

She kissed him once, then twice, before she got into a rhythm. She groaned after the first dozen and started moaning after about fifty. He got caught up by the passion and he finally closed his eyes and kissed her with unspent passion.

Their arduous trip here and the near disastrous first day – now thankfully past – was finally behind them. He almost forgot his nightmare and the fact she still had a beast inside her uterus before he jolted awake, the passion vanishing in one wave of sweat.

Jessi's skin was soaked and little slightly visible things skittered over her. It was a clear signs of infection but seemingly she was not aware of it. "What?" she asked. "You got them too."

He looked down and sure enough he was riddled with them.

Any moment now, he'd be a zombie too.

"Kyle!" An elbow accompanied the near yell and roused him just enough to wipe the dream away.

He was shaken awake by a barely clothed Jessi.

At least this time he knew it was a dream because she was pregnant with a writhing tentacle sticking out of her belly.

Until he woke much later that afternoon, he continued to have nightmares. He counted twenty-two before he finally really slept.

When they both woke much later, Jessi and Kyle shared an intimate moment with the sharing of over three hundred and fifty kisses, not that he was really keeping count. He knew he was truly awake because he could smell her, taste her, and feel her unlike his dreams.

This was his love, and although each of them had their flaws despite their hyper developed brains, he vowed to save humanity and her at the earliest opportunity. He idly wondered if she knew what he was planning. He only knew he couldn't tell her. He wasn't entirely sure if the parasite could hear what she did.

Kyle wasn't taking chances.


End file.
